The Twelfth Lane
by Kaytoko
Summary: Gou's swim team is cut due to funding changes at Iwatobi. In retaliation, she sneaks into Samezuka Academy dressed as a boy to prove that girls can swim just as well as boys. But can she prove her point and still keep her secret when her new roommate is none other than the captain of the boy's swim team, Seijuurou Mikoshiba? She's the Man AU SeiGou
1. Chapter 1

_The Twelfth Lane_

Summary: "If you can't join them, beat them." Gou's swim team is cut due to funding changes at Iwatobi and the principal won't allow her to join the boy's team. So, in order to prove that girls can swim just as well as boys, she sneaks into Samezuka Academy dressed as a boy so that she can swim against Iwatobi in the competition at the end of the summer. But what _should_ have been an easy couple of months gets a lot more complicated when she ends up rooming with the incredibly attractive co-captain of the team, Seijuurou Mikoshiba.

**A/N:** Yes, hello! Welcome to my summer project! I'm a huge die-hard SeiGou fan so it's only in my nature to write as many AUs as possible for my Free! OTP. This story is loosely based off of She's the Man (or rather, _the Twelfth Night_ by Shakespeare) and Hana Kimi. Or any "girl sneaks in dressed as a boy" story you can think of. I'll try to update this story on a regular schedule if I can, but I won't make any promises, just in case. That being said, I really hope you enjoy my story!  
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**Chapter 1**

Gou took a deep breath, letting the warm air fill her lungs as she walked to school. It was the first day that they were allowed to wear their summer uniforms, which meant that summer clubs and sports were just around the corner, and for Gou, whose whole life revolved around swimming, that meant her swimsuit was packed in her bag and ready to be worn. Gou lived for these days. The burning feel of the sun against her skin; the cool water lapping against her face; the rush of out swimming everyone else and beating her old record in the freestyle. Gou lived for summer. She lived to swim. Feeling that extra pep in her step, she saw her friend walking across the street in front of her and ran to catch up, calling her name. "Hana-chan!"

Chigusa Hanamura slowed down some to let her pretty redhead friend catch up and fall into step beside her. "Hi Kou-chan. You seem really happy today."

"That's because it's finally summer!" Gou said with a wide smile. "It's no longer cold and the pool will finally be open!"

"You're just as much of a swimming freak as ever," Chigusa said with a laugh. "Any more of this and you'll be the new Haruka Nanase."

"NO, no," Gou laughed. "Nobody can be as water obsessed as Nanase-senpai. Even if he does have good muscle structure."

Chigusa gasped and shoved her friend as Gou ran off laughing. "You're terrible!"

"Why? Because I can appreciate a guy for how good his biceps look?" she called over her shoulder. "Hurry up! There's a pool waiting for us!"

Chigusa laughed and chased after her.

Gou loved Iwatobi High School. It wasn't one of the more well-known schools for its sports, but several great swimmers that she grew up admiring took classes in its halls. Since Iwatobi focused more on its studies than its sports, Gou studied hard to pass the entrance exam just so that she could learn in the same classrooms and swim the same pools as some of the greats. She met some really great people and some of her best friends in the swim club there. She couldn't imagine a better place to be. As she approached the school's beautiful entrance, she saw her friends from the swim team waiting, who all jumped into a run towards her when they saw her.

"Kou! We have a huge situation here!" the one in front exclaimed. "The school cut the girl's swim team!"

Gou slowed to a stop, her carefree smile falling. "What?"

"It's gone!" another girl with curlier hair piped up. "The school wants to focus more on testing and cut the funding for the swim team in half. They can only afford to keep the boy's team!"

She held out a piece of official looking paper with bright red letters at the top. Gou snatched the paper out of her hands to read it closer. _We are sorry to inform you, but funding for the girl's swim team has officially been removed due to financial obligations. We hope that you will continue putting your extra effort into studying—_

"You've got to be kidding me," Gou breathed. "Are they serious?"

"Very," the curly hair girl said gravely.

"This is the worst," another girl said with a pout. "We had such a good team lined up this year. We actually had a chance of winning the title this time too."

"Yeah…"

"Man, I'm so bummed right now."

"I actually have a cute swim suit this year!"

"I just wanted to beat my old record. I was sure I could do it this year…"

"Maybe we should all just transfer over to Samezuka. They wouldn't cut their girl's team."

"I like Iwatobi though… I don't want to leave…"

"That's it!" Gou said loudly, startling them. "I'll go talk to the principal about this."

"Wait, Kou-chan," Chigusa said. "The principal was the one to cut our team in the first place. How do you think you're going to change his mind?"

"Don't worry," the redhead girl said, clapping her hand down on her friend's shoulder. "I'll think of something. You'll see."

And that was how she found herself standing in front of the principal's office, just before classes were supposed to start, wondering if this was really the best idea. Gou took a deep breath and reached up to knock on the door, her heart beating a little faster with nervous jitters. She heard a distant "come in" from behind it and cautiously stepped inside. She never really liked coming to the principal's office the few times she had been there before. It was lined with bookshelves stuffed to the brim with books of all genres, mostly just to make it seem like it was prestigious with all of that knowledge stuffed into one room, and the walls were covered with pictures of the principal and important people and banners proudly displaying the school's academic achievements. There were only a few things for the school's academic achievements, which inadvertently showed the principal's preference for where the school's funding should go. The man himself was a middle aged man with slightly greying hair and what could have been a kindly face if it weren't for the stress lines darkening his brow. He looked up when Gou stood before his desk and placed the slightly crinkled notice of their team being cut right in the middle.

"Ah," he said sitting back some with a look of reluctance. "I thought I'd be seeing one of you here today. What can I do for you, Matsuoka-san?"

"Why was our team cut?" Gou asked bluntly.

"Unfortunately, the school board decided that we needed more funding for our afterschool education programs," he said simply. "The money had to come from somewhere."

"But you didn't cut any funding from the boy's team," Gou challenged. "The money should have come from both teams. That way, we could still have a team."

The principal made a face and reached up to rub the bridge of his nose. "Listen, Matsuoka-san. This is nothing against you and the other girls in your team, but there have been too few competition wins coming from the girl's side. The boy's team makes it at least to the semi-finals every year."

"And we made it to the finals last year," Gou interrupted.

"Yes… That is true," the principal said slowly. "But overall, the costs of funding the girl's swim team was outweighing the profits. I'm sorry. That's just how it has to be."

Gou bristled slightly but reeled it in. "Okay… Then how about this: let us join the boy's team."

The principal blinked in surprise before coughing a laugh. "What?"

"I want to join the boy's team," Gou repeated. "Half of the girls on my team already swim better than most of the guys on the boy's team right now. Having us on there would only increase the school's chances of winning a competition and getting more money and funding for sports."

The principal laughed as he leaned back in his chair, lifting a hand up to wipe away a stray tear. "Matsuoka-san, listen to yourself. You can't seriously be thinking of joining the _boy's_ team."

Gou frowned. "What's wrong with that?"

"It's just that… Girls aren't as athletic as boys. You would never be able to keep up, let alone help the team to any new victories," he said. Gou's mouth dropped open. She could feel her anger boiling inside her, but just as she went to defend herself, the bell rang. "I'm sorry your team was cut, but the decision has been made." The principal picked up the notice off his desk and handed it back to her. "Go ahead on back to class, Mastuoka-san. Before you're late."

Gou bit her lip to keep from shouting, despite the rage that burned through her veins and made her fisted hands shake. "Yes, sir."

He waved her off and she left, feeling humiliated, degraded and all the more determined to prove him wrong. She just had to think of how.  
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"You're going to _what_?" Chigusa stared at her best friend like she didn't even recognize her. "You know I was joking when I said we should join the Samezuka swim team, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Gou said, letting her long red hair fall from her ponytail. "But I thought about it throughout school today, and it actually sounds like a pretty good plan."

"A pretty good plan-? Kou, you do know what you're telling me right now, right?" Chigusa said agape. "You're talking about sneaking in as _a boy _to swim on the _boy's_ team to prove to our principal that girls can swim just as well as boys. Am I the only one who feels like this is the most insane plan they've ever heard?"

"It's not insane," Gou protested. "I can do it. Guys are thin enough to look like girls already and they make those full body swimsuits now. I'm flat-chested enough already, no one will know the difference."

"It's not the swimming I'm worried about," Chigusa said to the side. "I mean, have you really thought this through? Do you know how much trouble you'll be in if somebody catches you?"

"I'm not going to get caught," Gou said firmly, placing her hairbrush down to turn and face her friend. "Listen, Hana-chan. Do you know what the principal said to me when I went in to talk to him? He said, 'Girls just aren't as athletic as boys.' That's what he said to me when I asked if we could join the boy's team. I've been swimming competitively since I was six years old. Six! I was a better swimmer than half the boys on the team when I was _eleven_." She looked at her uncertain friend and lowered her voice slightly. "I know you're worried, Hana-chan. But, this isn't about just swimming anymore. It's about proving a point. Both to our prejudiced principal _and_ for myself."

Chigusa bit her lip and stared at her friend for a long moment. She wanted to say that she was making a mistake. She wanted to tell her that she should just let it go. But Chigusa _knew_ Gou. She knew she would fight for the things she believed in, even if that meant sneaking into Samezuka Academy as a boy. And there was nothing she could say in that moment that could change her mind. "This is insane," she said. "You're actually going through with this?"

Gou looked at her frankly. "I'm actually going through with this."

Chigusa sighed to herself and placed a hand against her cheek. "I swear, Kou-chan. You never cease to amaze me."

"It's what I do best," Gou said with a wink, turning back to her vanity. "Now, will you help me out with this?"

Chigusa pulled a face. "Look, I know this is important to you… But, do you really have to cut your hair?

Gou lifted the scissors from the table of the vanity and pulled out a strip of her long red hair. "Yes, I do."

Chigusa squeezed her eyes closed as the scissors snipped and Gou's long hair fell short against her forehead.  
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_You can do this. You can do this. Just breathe._ Gou sucked in a deep breath, filling her lungs as much as they would go before releasing it in one heavy breath. Never in her life had she felt more nervous than she did standing in front of the gates to Samezuka Academy, bags packed and slung over her shoulders, dressed in the baggy boy's uniform with her hair as short as a boy's and a school ID in her pocket with her picture and her real name on it. Taking another deep breath, she stepped forward to make her way in when she was bumped from behind. She hit the ground with force, her heavy bags knocking the wind straight out of her.

"Damn, Yamaguchi. You knocked over a freshman," a boy said, bending over her. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm good," Gou choked out, struggling to push herself up.

"That's a lot of bags for the third day back to school," the guy commented. He seemed to be a nice guy with spiked dark hair and brown eyes. He was dressed in exercise clothes and judging from the nice tone to his deltoids, Gou could tell that he was a part of the track team. "Are you a transfer student or something?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah," she said with a cough, trying to lower her voice some. "Could you possibly point me in the direction of the office?"

He nodded slightly, standing up straight. "Sure… Although you may want to change out of those clothes before class. They're pretty dirty."

Gou looked down in surprise, realizing that the brand-new pristine white uniform was now covered head to toe in dirt. She groaned slightly to herself and drug herself up to her feet. "Yeah… About that…" she said quietly.

"Do you not have any other clothes?" the one called Yamaguchi asked. He was a little more standoffish than his friend, with bleached blonde hair that hung into his eyes some and a single black hoop earring in one ear. He avoided her eyes, like he was a little regretful for what he did. "I could probably break into the storage room of the swim team's locker room and grab you one of the spare tracksuits. Y'know… As an apology or something."

"Isn't that considered stealing?" Gou asked a little carefully. If she wanted to join the team, she had to be sure that she didn't start off on a bad foot by stealing their stuff before she even met them.

"Nah, there's like a million. And the captain of the team is a good friend of mine. He wouldn't mind."

"You know the captain?" Gou asked a little too excitedly. "Can I get a chance to talk to him? Meet him?"

"Woah," Yamaguchi said, taking a cautious step back. "Are you some sort of fanboy of his?"

"NO. No," Gou said quickly, coughing slightly. "Actually, I just really want to join the swim team. That's why I transferred here in the first place."

"Ah, another one of _those_," the track boy said to himself. Yamaguchi elbowed him in the ribs.

"Well, I'm a part of the swim team, so I could give you the ropes, if you want," Yamaguchi said.

"You would do that?" Gou asked happily.

"Sure. I remember what it was like when I first tried out last year. What are you good at?" he asked.

"The butterfly and freestyle," Gou answered. "I held the record at my last school." _For the girl's team_.

"Great," he said. "We could really use somebody on butterfly for some of our relay teams. What's your name, kid? I'm Ryuu Yamaguchi, and this is Takeshi Sato. We're second years."

"K- Gou Matsuoka," Gou replied, kicking herself slightly for almost saying the wrong name. She had spent so many years trying to suppress the use of her real name because it sounded too manly for her that it was almost habit for her to correct it. She considered using her brother's name at first, but Rin, at least, looked intimidating enough that anybody who questioned his strange name wouldn't give him shit about it. Gou, on the other hand, _looked_ like a Rin, so it only made sense that she would use her real name in the end. It was just going to be really hard not cringing every time she heard it.

"Gou, huh?" Ryuu asked. "That's a pretty sweet name. C'mon. I'll take you to the pool so we can get you a tracksuit to wear."

"Thank you," Gou said, falling in step beside the other two boys. "I really appreciate all the help."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," they said.

By the time they got to the famous Samezuka indoor pool, Gou was huffing slightly from having to drag her big bags around. She was starting to regret packing so much even though she hardly needed any of it. But walking up the great windows of the pool, all of the heavy weight on her shoulders just melted away. She slowed to a stop to just admire the pool's sparkling waters and how _big_ it was. For her, who only saw pools like this on competition trips, it was one hell of a sight to see.

"Hey, Gou! Quit admiring the pool and get over here!" Ryuu shouted. "We gotta get to class soon!"

"Yeah, okay!" she called back, breaking into a short jog to meet them at the door that Ryuu was cracking open. The lock on the door popped open with a small click from the work of his ID card and he grinned as it swung open some.

"C'mon, we've gotta do this quick," he said, ducking into the long hallway that led to the locker room. Gou followed with her mouth slightly agape and a spring in her step. Seeing the water so close now was getting her excited to feel the rush of swimming again and she wanted nothing more than to just skip the whole first day of class to swim laps if she could. But she had appearances to uphold, so she turned her eyes away to follow the blonde swimmer into the locker room. He opened a closet that had a bunch of unused tracksuits folded up in boxes and searched around for one that he thought would fit Gou. In the meantime, Gou put her bags down on the benches and rolled her shoulders some.

"Here you go," Ryuu said handing her a stack of the sleek black tracksuit with the iconic Samezuka stripe pattern on the side. She stared at it for a long moment, touching the stripes. How many years had she admired these tracksuits and the powerhouse swim school that wore them? "That should fit, I think," Ryuu continued, breaking her attention. "Change quickly, though, so we can get out of here."

She nodded and took a brief look around realizing very quickly that she was standing in the boy's locker room, dressed as a _boy_ and there was absolutely nowhere for her to hide and change. Swallowing thickly, she began backing up slightly, noticing that there was luckily a set of lockers in the middle of the room that sort of provided some sort of divider between her and the two boys standing near her. This was going to be tough. She was going to have to change _fast_. "I'll just… be over here," she said quickly, barely catching their confused looks before she ducked behind the lockers.

_Quick, quick, quick!_ she thought to herself as she kicked off her shoes and tore off the bottoms of the dirty white uniform. She couldn't remember a time when she had ever done something so terrifying in her life. Except maybe that one time that the girls on her team dared her to skinny dip in the Iwatobi pool after midnight. But that was something else entirely. She was partway through changing her top when there was an exclamation of surprise from the other side of the locker room, and a door opening suddenly. Gou froze, standing there in just her sports bra, the tracksuit top clutched in her hands when a voice much deeper than either one of the two boys she came in with spoke.

"Hey. What are you two doing in here?" the new voice asked.

"Mikoshiba-senpai!" Ryuu exclaimed. "We—uh—we-"

"We came in here to grab something out of Yamaguchi's locker, right?" Takeshi supplied. There was a dull thud that sounded a little bit like somebody getting elbowed.

"Yeah! Sorry, Captain. I forgot one of my books here," Ryuu said with a strained laugh.

"Right… Well, grab your book and get out of here before you're late for class," Mikoshiba responded.

"Yeah, okay, sorry, Captain," Ryuu said quickly, turning to mess with a locker nearby. It opened with a loud creak and he closed it with a slam loud enough to scare Gou's already frantically beating heart out of her chest. She clutched the jacket of the tracksuit close to her, barely letting herself breathe. There were quick footsteps as they ran out of the locker room, leaving Gou there by herself. She gave a quiet breath, relaxing a little until a loud sigh from the other side of the room had her tensing up again.

"Whose stuff even is this," he asked quietly to himself. Gou heard rustling as he messed around with her bags, looking for a nametag. She had half a mind to just let him look until she realized that she had some sensitive stuff in there like tampons that she desperately needed to hide. Her heart tripled in speed in her worry for it and she quickly yanked the tracksuit top over her head without even bothering to unzip it. The zipper yanked at her hair, but she ignored it as she quickly stepped out to the other side.

"Wait-! That's… mine…"

Her words died on her tongue as her eyes fell upon the other occupant of the room. The captain of the Samezuka boy's swim team stood up slightly when he saw her, a look of slight confusion pulling at his brow. Gou couldn't form a coherent thought for a full five seconds. She had never seen a body better built for swimming than this boy standing in front of her. And it certainly didn't help that he was still wet from swimming in the pool and wearing nothing more than a speedo and a towel hung over his shoulders. She felt her face growing warm as she admired the perfect way his shoulder muscles moved as he crossed his arms and she swallowed thickly through her dry throat.

"Who are you?" he asked, his gold eyes slightly suspicious as he looked her over. "I don't recognize you from the incoming freshman."

"Me?" she repeated. "Um, I'm new. Transfer student."

"Right…" he said slowly. "Well, you shouldn't be in here. Or wearing that, actually. How did you get it?"

Gou's face turned red. "Um… I'm sorry! I tripped on my way into the school and, um, Yamaguchi-san offered to get me something to wear and we ended up here…"

"That sounds like something Yamaguchi would do," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, go ahead and wear it for now. I wouldn't really care if you took it with you normally, but we can only give those out to the people on the swim team, so I'm going to need it back. Just come back to return it tomorrow or something after you've washed it."

Gou was automatically nodding, like a good girl, when she was suddenly remembered that she was standing there, talking to the captain of the swim team that she _desperately _needed to be on. "I won't," she blurted suddenly. "Because I want to join the swim team too."

He looked at her curiously, a slight smirk lifting at his lips. "I like your spunk, kid, but we've already had preliminary try outs for incoming freshman."

"Please," Gou said. "I _need_ to be on this team. Just give me a chance."

"Need to be, huh?" Mikoshiba responded, his lips pulling into a grin. "Fair enough. I'll give you a shot. Meet me here later tonight after classes and I'll give you your shot."

Gou's heart felt so light in that moment, an unrestrained smile splitting across her lips. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Yeah, sure," the captain responded, averting his eyes slightly. "What's your name anyway, kid?"

"Gou Matsuoka," Gou responded instantly.

"Gou Matsuoka," Mikoshiba repeated slowly. "Well, Gou-kun. My name is Seijuurou Mikoshiba and if you make the team, I'll be your captain." There was a dangerously serious look in his eyes, but he gave her a pleasant smile. She got the feeling then that he wasn't going to give her a free pass just because she asked for one. She would really have to work hard to impress him and something about that had her excited. "I'm looking forward to see what you can do."  
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**A/N:** Thank you for reading! Please consider leaving a review, if you'd so desire. All feedback I get helps me write the story better and give you the things you want to see the most. Thanks once again!


	2. Chapter 2

_The Twelfth Lane_

A/N: Thank you for all the good feedback so far! A few of you were concerned about how Gou would be able to wear the swimsuit for practice without everyone knowing that she was a girl, but luckily the show fixed that issue for me when they stuck Makoto and Rei in those full-body suits in episode four. Thank you, canon! As for the update schedule, look for a new chapter every Friday unless something prevents me from updating. ;) Happy reading!  
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**Chapter Two**

Gou breathed heavily as she ran up to the classroom printed on the papers in her hands. She was already late due to the people at the office moving a little slow when they gave her the key to her dorm room and explained everything she needed to know. She was hoping that she could slip in unnoticed, but standing here now, she knew it was inevitable for her to stand out in class. It didn't help that she was wearing the swim team's tracksuit without actually being on the team. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the classroom door before stepping in, thirty curious eyes turning to stare at her.

"Excuse me," she said with a bow. "Sorry I'm late. I got lost."

"Ah, you must be the new student then," the female teacher said. She seemed nice enough with bobbed brown hair and a kind smile. She reminded Gou a bit of her literary teacher back at Iwatobi. "My name is Ms. Nakamura. Would you mind introducing yourself to the class?"

Gou nodded hesitantly and turned to face her classmates. Already, she could see a number of them whispering between each other. "Um, well, my name is Gou Matsuoka," she said, making sure to lower her voice some. "I'm a second year transfer from Iwatobi High School and I came to Samezuka to join the swim team."

"Obviously," someone coughed in the back. The student beside him elbowed him to be silent. Gou tried not to react. She wasn't here to make best friends or have a rose-colored high school experience. She was here to swim.

The teacher coughed slightly. "Well, then. How about you take a seat in the back next to Nitori? Nitori, please raise your hand."

A boy with bowl-cut light purple hair next to the window raised his hand with a smile and Gou started heading his way. Along the way, she noticed two familiar faces trying desperately to avoid her eyes. Her eyebrows came down in an angry scowl and she couldn't resist kicking at Ryuu's chair slightly as she walked by. She sat down in a huff beside the curious purple-haired Nitori, who seemed excited on his own that somebody was finally taking up the space beside him.

"Hi," he said quietly, shifting slightly to move his textbook in the space between their desks. "My name is Aiichirou Nitori. I'm also trying out for the swim team this year."

"Really?" Gou asked. "But aren't you a second year?"

Nitori gave a quiet laugh and rubbed the back of head. "Well, I didn't make it last year. But I want to try again this year. I made it to the second round this time around, but I'm just hoping I won't choke when the actual try outs start tomorrow."

"You'll do great," Gou said firmly. "You'll definitely make it this time around."

Nitori blinked, honestly surprised by her words. "Wow. Nobody's encouraged me like that since middle school."

"Well, that's stupid," Gou responded, looking him in the eyes. "If you want something bad enough then you can definitely get there. People underestimate determination, and it's unfair of them not to give you a chance just because you're not quite as good as them. I know you'll make it this time."

Nitori looked down at his folded hands, a smile turning up on his face. "Thanks, Matsuoka-kun. You're a good person."

Gou glanced over at him and felt a small bubble of warmth grow inside her. "You're welcome."

She paid attention for the better part of the morning taking notes but realizing quickly that a lot of the information they were covering had already been covered at her old school. Gou was a naturally quick learner so studying for class wasn't going to be one of her issues while she was at the school. Luckily, the morning ended quickly and lunch came around, friends in the class pushing their desks together and pulling out their bentos to eat. Gou's stomach grumbled but when she reached for her bag, she remembered that she hadn't packed anything to eat.

"Dang it," she groaned quietly, laying her head on the table. "I don't even know where the vending machines are…"

"Did you not bring anything to eat?" Nitori asked. Gou looked over at him as he slid a homemade wrapped rice ball onto her table. "You can have one of mine. I made too many anyway."

Gou sat up and took the rice ball in her hands, looking at the other boy with tearfully happy eyes. "Nitori-kun…"

"It's the least I could do," he said with a smile.

Gou decided that he was by far the greatest person she had ever met and took a big, grateful bite out of the ball. "Mm! Thish ish amehshing!" she exclaimed through a mouthful. Swallowing thickly, she looked over at Nitori with wide-sparkling eyes. "Did you make this?"

Nitori blushed a little and rubbed the back of his head. "Um, yeah. My mom taught me how to cook in middle school."

"Then she did a great job," Gou admitted, taking another bite.

"You don't think it's too… feminine?" the other boy asked with a slight note of hesitation. "Cooking, I mean."

Gou furrowed her brow. "No?"

"Ah," Nitori said quietly, a smile pulling at his lips. "Well, that's good to hear."

Gou nodded a little absentmindedly, looking forward to where Ryuu and Takeshi were starting to get up out of their chairs and escape somewhere. Gou swiftly got out of her own chair to intercept their escape route, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at both of them.

"You left me in the locker room," she said lowly.

Ryuu flinched slightly, backing up into Takeshi who just shoved him away. "Sorry, okay? I kinda panicked when Captain Mikoshiba walked in."

"I thought you said you were friends with him!" Gou said back.

"Friends in the very… _limited_ sense of the word," Ryuu admitted.

"Did you get in trouble?" Takeshi asked, popping an octopus shaped sausage in his mouth as he leaned over Ryuu's shoulder.

"Yes," Gou said, folding her arms. "But luckily I talked him into giving me a chance to try out for the team anyway." Ryuu's eyes widened slightly and he glanced over his shoulder at Takeshi. Gou frowned. "What?"

"It's just… You might have had a better chance of getting on the team if you tried out with some of the senpais," Ryuu admitted. "They're a little more forgiving of newcomers than the Captain is. He tends to judge people with a competitive lens and only picks the people he thinks will better the team. And, no offense, but you're a little scrawny. I didn't even realize you were a second year when I bumped into you. What do you even lift? Like ten pounds?" He reached out to grab Gou's arm to feel for her muscle. She bat him away with a glare.

"How much I can lift shouldn't matter," she said. "I'm a strong swimmer and I'm going to prove to him that I can make the team, no matter what anyone says."

She caught Takeshi's look from over Ryuu's shoulder as he sipped his juice box. "What's the deal with you needing to make the swim team anyway?" he asked after a moment. "It's true that our school is known to have a strong swim team, but you're acting like you _have_ to make the team." His eyes met hers and she felt her stomach drop slightly from the way his eyes seemed to look straight through her. "What's your _real_ reason for joining?"

Gou looked between them, feeling her heart rate increase from all the eyes looking at her. "I have to beat them," she said quietly. "I have to beat Iwatobi. I have to prove to them that they were wrong about everything they said about me and that I _am_ good enough to swim with you guys. I _am_ a good enough swimmer to join your team and beat them at their own game. I _will_ beat them."

People were staring at her now, but Takeshi looked satisfied. He took another long drag of his juice box until it made the loud crackling sound that it was empty before reaching out a hand to pat Gou's shoulder. "Good luck."

Gou felt a smile curl up at her lips despite herself.

"Good luck?" Ryuu repeated in disbelief. "He just spouted all this nonsense about getting good enough to swim at the competition against Iwatobi and all you have to say is 'good luck'?"

"Yeah," Takeshi responded, crunching up his empty juice box. "I think he can do it. He's got that look in his eye."

Ryuu looked back at Gou suspiciously. "What look?"

"The one that says he's willing to do anything to achieve his goal," Takeshi explained, his dark eyes meeting with Gou's. "Isn't that right?"

If his words held a second meaning, Gou didn't give it any heed. "Absolutely."

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, to Gou's relief. But the quicker the clock ran down, the more she was aware that her swimming test was coming up. She only had one shot to impress him or that was the end of everything. No pressure. The bell rang at the end of class and Gou was up like a lightning bolt, headed in a beeline for the dorms. From behind her, she heard Nitori shout a "good luck!" her way. She made it back to the dorms in what she considered record speed, tumbling through the door to her room with a lack of grace. Luckily, her roommate still wasn't there and she had enough time to change into her swimsuit before she had to deal with changing in front of somebody else.

Unlike her roommate, her stuff was still packed in her bags and haphazardly thrown atop the top bunk bed. She had planned to do the whole unpacking thing later that night when all the important moments were over, unless of course, she _didn't_ make the team, but that a situation that she refused to consider. She crawled up the side of the bunk to flop on her bed and dig through her bag to find her newly purchased swimsuit. She wasn't a particular fan of the way brand-new swimsuits felt, but given the situation, she had no choice. Wadding it up, she chucked it across the room to land in front of the door of the private bathroom next to the closet. When she had seen the bathroom that morning when she dropped off her stuff, she almost cried from happiness. It was already hard enough acting like a boy without having to deal with public baths, and she was more than happy that she wasn't also going to repulse people away from her by how bad she smelled. There was only the locker room after swim practice to still find a solution around.

Jumping off the bed, she skidded her way into the tiny bathroom and shed her clothes so that she could pull her swimsuit on. She was lucky that some of the newer speed-oriented swimsuits were a full-body kind that had straps over the shoulders and covered all the way from the chest to the ankles. If it wasn't for this particular swimsuit style, she wouldn't have even been there. Pulling the straps over her shoulders, she looked at herself in the mirror. It was almost frightening how much she looked like her brother then. A scrawnier version with shorter hair, of course, but her brother none the less. She used to hate how boyish her figure looked and made it a point to pray to the Shinto gods for bigger boobs and a curvier body every time she went to shrines throughout the year. But now she was ironically glad that those assets didn't exist. Adjusting the straps a bit more, she studied herself for a long moment to be sure she didn't look particularly feminine. Even without much boob to claim as hers, she still slipped a sports bra under her suit to ensure that there wasn't any curviness to see.

"Well, here goes nothing," she breathed to herself and reached down to pull the tracksuit on over her swimsuit and head out for the pool.

When she arrived at the indoor training facility, she could already see people practicing at the pool. She assumed that they were the third years running drills with the new recruits in preparation for the second part of the try outs the following day. She desperately hoped that she would be joining them. As she walked into pool area, she found the captain easily with how bright red his hair was. He stood near the collaboration of new recruits in a tracksuit of his own, running drills with a whistle in his mouth, a timer in his hand and a clipboard tucked under his arm. She waited patiently for him to nice her, which he did after about three more repetitions. He gave a couple instructions to the third years around him and handed his clipboard off to someone else before coming over to meet her.

"Gou-kun," he greeted with a polite smile. "Ready to swim?"

Gou felt a small curl of nervous excitement twist in her stomach. "Yeah, I am."

"Great," he said. "You can put your tracksuit over by the windows and swim a few warm up laps, if you'd like. I'll be testing you on the four basic relay styles and your speed on whichever you consider your strongest."

Gou nodded and moved to the window to unzip her tracksuit. She felt nervous as she made her way back, entirely aware of all the eyes on her. Luckily, she wasn't the only one who had on a full-body suit, but it didn't make her feel much better about the way people were looking at her. The captain had his eyes on her, but his expression wasn't any different than it was before. She gave a quiet breath of relief as she pulled on her swim cap.

_Just breathe_, she thought to herself. _Remember your training. Remember what Rin taught you_.

She walked to the side of the pool and looked down at the water, watching it move slowly, waiting for her to dive in and feel it's presence around her. "I'll start now, if you don't mind," she said to Seijuurou, pulling her goggles down over her eyes.

"You're not going to warm up?" he asked. She shook her head as she climbed on the starting block. Seijuurou seemed intrigued by her choice, judging from the wide grin on his face. "Fair enough," he said. "We'll start with the relay forms. Do one lap per style, transitioning between them while still in the water. Start with breast, then back, butterfly and finally freestyle. Which do you want me to time you on?"

She gave it a little thought as she positioned herself. She was really quick with freestyle, but the one her brother taught her would always be her best. "Butterfly."

Seijuurou nodded once and raised his whistle to his mouth. Gou took up her position and closed her eyes, taking one deep breath. The tension in her body start to relax, the stiffness of her shoulders and the nervous shake of her fingers slipping out of her mind as she zoned in to the lane right before her. She knew this feeling. The thrill of racing and the feeling of the water waiting for her. This is what she lived for. The whistle sounded, sharp and shrill and her body moved on its own, contracting and shooting off from the starting block with the sharpness and fluidity of somebody who had done this a million times. The water took her in a familiar embrace, swirling around her as she slid her way down the lane. With the first pull of her arm and breath, she couldn't even feel her nerves anymore. Her mind was only focused on how it felt to finally be swimming again.

She easily fell into the rhythm of the breast stroke, eating away the lane with every powerful push of her legs. She could feel the familiar burn in her muscles and the swirl of water against her skin. Before she knew it, she was already transitioning into the backstroke, focusing on her breath and the consistency of her strokes. As she returned, she could see eyes on her again. Some of the other swimmers had paused in their routine to watch her swim and Seijuurou had an inching grin pulling at his lips. She tucked herself under the water again and transitioned into the stroke that she loved the most.

The butterfly was a challenging to stroke to master at first. She struggled for many summers trying to get it right. She was never really good at it and preferred to swim freestyle since it was the fastest, and it wasn't until Rin had come back from Australia for a month that she really saw how beautiful it could be. Watching Rin swim the butterfly was like seeing a bird fly for the first time and she was instantly entranced by it. They spent that whole summer working on her technique until she could do it correctly and she would never forget the first moment that she really nailed it. It literally felt like she was flying.

But the lap ended before she could completely lose herself in the stroke and she easily transitioned to what was the easiest and fastest of the four. She regulated her breathing and put all her effort into pushing forward as fast as possible, sliding through the water like a knife. As she twisted and shot herself backwards, just a few meters left, she felt excitement bubble up deep inside her. It didn't matter what her time was when she finished. This was the feeling that she lived for. The finish came up on her fast and she touched the wall with all of her momentum, popping out of the water to look up at Seijuurou. His eyebrows were raised and his lips were curled in a smile she wasn't sure how to read.

"Well?" she asked, breathing heavy. "What's the time?"

"A minute and three seconds," he responded.

Gou frowned. "Dammit," she cursed. "I've done better. Let me take another shot at it. Please."

"Are you kidding?" one of the boys standing nearby exclaimed. "I've never even _seen_ a butterfly that fast before!"

The other boys standing nearby said similar things in an excited manner.

"That was amazing!"

"It was so fast!"

"And he says he can do _better_?!"

"With that kind of fly time we'll be snatching championships without even trying!"

"Captain, you _have_ to take him. We'll be unstoppable!"

Gou felt a surprised blush rise on her cheeks and an uncontrollable bubble of excitement pool in her stomach. She looked back over at the redhead captain, hoping that maybe he would have a similar response. He gave a slight shake of his head and perched his hands on his hips.

"I'm not saying it's perfect," he said. "But I would be stupid to cut you now. I'm giving you a second shot. Come back tomorrow for the second round of tryouts."

Gou let a wide smile split across her face. "YES! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She paused when she saw the strange expressions on everyone's face. She coughed slightly, lowering her voice. "I mean… Thank you for this opportunity. I won't let you down."

The other guys gave awkward looks at each other but Seijuurou laughed, loud and amused. "No," he said with a wide grin. "I don't think you will."  
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Practice continued for another hour, Gou joining in with the rest of the new recruits for repetitions to get a few more warm up laps under her belt. She hadn't got the chance to swim a lot before she made the snap decision to transfer to Samezuka as a boy, so her skills were still a little rusty. She felt good about how her first run went and judging from the response she got, she had a really good chance of being on the team. She only had to work on her times now so that she could snag a place on the first string relay. But the hour left of practice went by really fast and she didn't get nearly as much practice in as she wanted before one of the seniors blew his whistle loud.

"Alright! That's it! You guys can hit the showers and get out of here now!"

Words that might have usually made her feel indifferent, if not a little disappointed, stabbed Gou in the gut then with a sharp smack of reality. The _showers_. Nobody left the pool area without drying off and changing into dry clothes again. But as the rest of the prospective team got out of the water and joked around as they headed for the locker room, Gou hesitated, panicking internally about what to do.

"What's wrong, Matsuoka?" one of the seniors asked as he walked by. "Why aren't you getting out?"

"Um… I just wanted to swim a little bit longer…" she said quickly.

He shrugged. "Suit yourself."

She sighed in relief as he walked off and ducked her head under the water for a while. She practically had no options. The boy's locker room was completely off limits and the girl's locker room was locked because it was a boy's only practice. She figured that there wouldn't be much of a chance that both teams would be practicing at the same time, judging from the amount of people, and that wasn't even counting the returning members that _didn't_ come that day. If she had more time, she could probably find a way into the girl's locker room, but that was something she'd have to research later. For now, she was stuck with absolutely no solution.

Popping her head out of the water again, she saw that most of the people were already gone, leaving just a few stragglers cleaning things up behind. She gave a quiet sigh and turned on her back to casually backstroke her way to the edge of the pool. When she got there, everyone was cleared out and she hefted herself out of the water to quickly run to where her clothes were still folded by the window. She hated having to do this, but she hadn't thought ahead and didn't have a towel, so she threw her tracksuit on over her suit and ran out the doors as fast as possible, jogging all the way bag to the dorms.

A couple of people gave her strange looks as she ran by them with a wet tracksuit sticking to her body and dripping hair, but she gave them no heed. She breathed a sigh of impatient relief as she turned the corner of her hallway and her room came into view. She was already sighing in relief, so ready to take a warm shower and get out of her warm clothes. She put her key in the lock and turned the knob, already reaching up to unzip her tracksuit. She took two steps into the room before she realize something was different.

There was somebody else in the room.

Somebody she recognized _immediately_.

Seijuurou was focused on the books splayed out on the top of his desk, writing notes on the notebook placed on top of them. He looked up when he heard the door open, his gold eyes going a little wider when he realized who it was. "Gou-kun! What are you doing here?"

"What am I…" Gou felt her heart freeze in her chest as her logical mind started to catch up with her. This was bad. This was _really_ bad. "This is my room…"

"Your room?" Seijuurou repeated in surprise. He gave a half look at the haphazardly splayed out bags on the top bunk. He turned back and gave her a half-smile, one that she was sure was going to haunt her dreams _and_ her nightmares for the rest of her stay as he spoke his next words. "Ah… Well, I guess that makes us roommates, then."  
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A/N: Thank you for reading! Please consider leaving a review! It's very much appreciated :3


	3. Chapter 3

_The Twelfth Lane_

A/N: The response for this story has been fantastic so far! Thank you all so much for being so supportive and leaving great feedback for me to keep in mind. :)  
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**Chapter Three**

Gou stared in shock with her mouth half open and her hair still dripping down the back of her tracksuit as she stood awkwardly in the doorway of their shared room. Was her luck seriously _this_ bad? It was one thing to have a boy as a roommate, but to have the seriously (and unfairly) attractive captain of the swim team that she _desperately_ needed to be on without being caught? This was just asking for trouble.

Seijuurou just raised an eyebrow at her expression, glancing down at the wet spots in her tracksuit that stuck to her. "Are you still wearing your swimsuit?"

"No. I mean, yes," she said quickly. "I-I didn't bring anything to change into."

"Ah," he said nodding. "Shower's open."

Her eyes quickly darted to the empty bathroom and her stuff still sitting on the top of her bed. A shower sounded like the greatest thing in the world in that moment (_anything_ to get out of her still wet swimsuit) but she didn't want to climb all the way to the top bunk to grab her stuff and get her bed wet in the process. Seijuurou eyed her uncertainly from his seat at his desk and leaned back in his chair to look at her.

"Is everything okay? You look a little pale," he commented.

"No, I'm good," she said quickly, stepping out of the doorway to let the door finally close behind her. She was just going to have to suck it up and grab her bag anyway. She _needed_ her stuff. She took three squishy steps toward the bunk bed and tried to stand on her toes to grab her bag without touching either of the beds. Her fingers just barely brushed the edge of her duffle bag and she cursed her short stature for a long moment in her mind as she struggled to reach the bag.

"Here," Seijuurou said then, catching her off guard as he reached up from behind her, bumping her back slightly as he reached up to get her bag for her. She spun quickly on her heel to face him, her cheeks on fire as he held her bag out for her to take with one eyebrow raised.

"Thanks," she said quickly and practically ran to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. Standing in front of the mirror, she breathed heavily, clutching her heavily beating heart in her chest. This was a nightmare. This was the absolute _worst_ set up she could possibly ask for. There was no way she could do this. She was already struggling after one day and somehow she thought she was going to keep this ruse up for _two months_? Who was she kidding. She was going to be found out _immediately_.

"Calm down, calm down!" she said quietly to herself. "Get yourself together." She smacked her cheeks a couple times and looked at herself in the mirror. "You can do this. You've already got one step down. Just keep going. Keep going."

She watched her cheeks slowly redden in the mirror and she saw the determination return in her eyes. Finally feeling like she was a little more stable, she stepped away and began peeling away the wet clothes from her body. Turning on the shower a moment later, she let out an unintentional sound of happiness, so happy to have the warmth of the water against her skin, letting all the stress of the day melt away for one small moment. The shower ended far earlier than she wanted, and she stepped out and dried herself off, digging through her bag to find nice baggy clean clothes. Pulling them on, she looked at herself in the mirror, double checking that she looked as boyish as possible. She ran her fingers through her short hair a couple times, making it stand up every which way and eventually exited the bathroom.

Seijuurou was still sitting at his desk, his pen bouncing in his lips as he concentrated on the textbook laid out before him. Awkwardly, Gou shuffled her way back over to her side of the room and tossed her duffel bag next to her own desk. Walking back to the bathroom, she gathered her swimsuit and her wet tracksuit and laid them out to dry properly before going over to sit at her desk. As she pulled out her books and began studying, the silence of the room was practically oppressive. She could hear the soft tick tick of the clock like it was a countdown to her death, each beat of the time-telling metronome ticking away another second before her final demise.

"Hey, Gou-kun."

She jumped at the sound of Seijuurou's voice, her knee cracking against the underside of the desk with a jarring strength. She groaned to herself and held her knee as she nervously looked over at Seijuurou who stared at her with an eyebrow raised.

"You okay?" he asked hesitantly. She nodded, pushing back the tears forming in her eyes. "Okay then… I just wanted to ask you a question."

She felt her heart sink straight to her stomach. "…Okay?"

"Relax, it's nothing big," he said with a slight quirk of his lips. "I just wanted to know about your butterfly technique. Where did you learn to do it like that?"

Gou gave a quiet breath as relief coursed through her veins. "Oh. Well, my brother taught me how to do it," she answered. "He's going to school in Australia for swimming and he came back one summer and helped me figure it out."

Seijuurou stared at her. "You learned how to do a fly like that in one summer?"

"Oh! No. I mean, I learned that technique when I was twelve. I've just been practicing it ever since," she said. "You know, in competitions around the prefectures and stuff."

"Oh yeah? Which ones?"

Gou had the names of the competitions at the edge of her tongue before she realized that all of the ones she had participated in were just for girls. She panicked for a moment to think of a different competition that boys also participated in, Seijuurou patiently waiting for her response before she fizzled out and gave up. "Ah, well… they're not really that well known… You probably wouldn't know them."

She half expected him to challenge her response, but luckily he just shrugged it off and turned back to the homework on his desk. "Fair enough. I thought I should let you know that your fly run earlier was about three seconds short of our school record."

Gou felt her eyes widen as she looked at him. "Seriously?"

He gave her a smirk from over his shoulder. "Yeah. But don't let it get to your head. I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're a good swimmer."

Gou let a wide smile spread across her face as his words warmed her from the inside. _A good swimmer_. "I wouldn't dream of it, Captain."

They didn't talk much after that, falling into a comfortable groove doing their respective homework. Some of the stress of the day left her as she finished her work, but all of it returned as they settled in for bed. There was something incredibly nerve wracking about having another person sleeping just below her in the room who could find her out at any second and it didn't help that she was a bit notorious for talking in her sleep. Rin used to make fun of her for practically giving a speech one night about how much she loved watermelons but hated strawberries, and for someone who became _way_ too truthful when she slept, there was a very real possibility that she could spill all her secrets without really meaning to. So, the hours crept by at an agonizingly slow rate, ticking away with the clock on Seijuurou's desk.

Before she knew it, the sun was creeping up over the edge of the horizon and her alarm clock was ringing. She tried to ignore it, if just to get a little bit of rest to run on for the rest of the day, but she froze as she heard Seijuurou shift below her, the bed creaking as he sat up and gave an exaggerated yawn.

"C'mon, Matsuoka," he said, as he stood up, hitting his hand against the metal railing next to Gou's face. Her eyes popped open in surprise. "Time for class."

She took a deep breath, feeling the dragging fingers of a sleepless night pulling at her mind. She leaned over slightly to look at the clock when she saw Seijuurou pull off his shirt. She froze, her eyes wide and her face slowly going red as he yanked his pants down and began dressing for school. Her hands flew to her face to cover her eyes and she breathed slowly, trying not to panic too much. Or stare. What seemed like an eternity later, Seijuurou knocked on the metal of her bed again, jolting her awake from a sleep she didn't realize she had taken.

Luckily, he was already dressed in the white uniform this time, his jacket unzipped so that she could see the black t-shirt he wore underneath, and moving around the room as he gathered his books. He looked up at her, still lying on the bed and noticed that she was awake now.

"Are you going to get dressed? Class starts in ten minutes."

Gou let that phrase sink into her mind before she jolted up into a sit. "Ten minutes?" she exclaimed groggily. "I set my alarm for an hour before class!"

"You fell back asleep," Seijuurou said simply, lifting his bag over his shoulder as he went to leave. "Better hurry."

The door closed softly behind him and she practically jumped off the bed to dig through her clothes for her uniform. She saw her still dusty and dirty uniform and groaned slightly to herself when she remembered that she had forgotten to wash it. She added that to her list of things to do and didn't even hesitate to rip off her pajamas to pull on her uniform. Just as she was tripping her way into her pants, the door swung open again, scaring her into yanking her pants up hard, feeling the burn of the fabric rip its way up against her leg. She held the pants up with white knuckled fists and an awkward smile as Seijuurou walked back in.

"Forgot my textbook," he said as he went to his desk to grab his book. He looked over at her standing next to her desk awkwardly. "Oh, good. You're up."

She gave a slightly awkward laugh as she attempted to belt her pants without looking stranger than she already did. "Yeah… Sorry. I didn't sleep well last night."

"Wait till we start actual practices," he said with a grin as he headed out the door again. "I'll run you so ragged that you'll sleep like the dead."

She gave a half-hearted laugh as the door swung shut again that sounded just as unenthused to her own ears as she felt inside. "Fantastic…"  
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Gou wheezed as she ran into the school, clutching her chest as she struggled to breathe. She was never really that great at long distance running and it didn't help that the Samezuka campus was absolutely _enormous_. It took her forever just to find the right building to go into and now she had barely two minutes to make it up to the third floor and slide into class before she was late. So, she was running; taking steps two at a time and sliding around corners without looking. She was almost home free when she took a corner too quickly and ran face-first into somebody, falling to the ground with a painful smack and a resigned groan of pain. Somewhere in the distance the bell for class rang and Gou sighed in defeat.

"Dammit, I was so close," she said.

"Ow ow ow…"

Snapping her eyes open, she looked at the other person she had run into, a pretty girl with purple ribbons in her long dark hair. She rubbed her elbow like she had jarred it on the ground and Gou felt a little bit bad for being so reckless. She sat up and began stacking the papers she had accidentally scattered through the hallway.

"Hey, are you alright?" she asked, looking at the girl. "I'm sorry I ran into you. You aren't hurt, are you?"

The girl looked over at Gou, her eyebrows drawing down in a cold glare. "You made me smack my elbow on the windowsill."

Gou flinched a little. "Oh man. I'm so sorry. Let me carry these papers to your class for you as an apology."

She seemed genuinely surprised by Gou's offer but didn't comment on it as Gou finished gathering all of the papers. "We're in the same class."

Gou's eyebrows raised. "Really? Jeez, I'm sorry. It's only been one day for me and I'm not very good at memorizing faces. Do you need help up?" She offered her hand to the girl who looked at it for a long moment before taking it. Gou pulled her to her feet and noticed that the other girl was a couple inches taller than her. She sighed slightly to herself. _I must look like the girliest of guys to everyone here_. "I'm Gou Matsuoka," Gou continued as they started for the classroom. "But I guess you would know that already, wouldn't you? What's your name?"

She looked away slightly. "My name is Megumi Sakarai. I'm the class representative."

"Megumi," Gou repeated with a slight hum. "That's such a pretty name." The girl looked back at her with slightly wide eyes, her cheeks going pink. "And class representative! That's such an impressive role. I'm sure you do it well. You look like someone who would." Gou looked over at her and gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry for running into you earlier. I'm still trying to get to know the school. I was hoping I'd make it in time for class, but I guess that's hopeless."

"I can tell the teacher you were helping me out, Matsuoka-san," Megumi said quickly.

Gou looked up at her with touched eyes. "Really? That'd be so great. Thank you so much! You really _are_ a great person, Megumi-san!"

"It's nothing," the other girl mumbled.

They approached the classroom, which Megumi opened, all eyes looking up at them as the teacher paused in roll call. "Ah! Sakarai-san. Thank you so much for bringing the documents. But, Matsuoka-san…"

"I tripped in the hallway earlier," Megumi said. "He was helping me carry the files."

"How kind of him," Ms. Nakamura said with a nod. "You can put them here and take your seats."

Gou nodded and did as she was told before scurrying over to her seat in the back. Nitori gave her a warm smile as she sat down and Ryuu leaned back in his seat to give her a look over his shoulder.

"What?" she asked under her breath.

"Sakarai-san?" he asked lowly. Gou shook her head, not following him. He started making gestures toward her like he had something to say about her, but none of them made sense. Ryuu gave an annoyed sigh before going to say something, a loud clearing of the throat cutting his words off.

"Yamaguchi-san," Ms. Nakamura said, crossing her arms. "If you're not going to sit in that chair correctly, then maybe you should just sit on the floor."

Ryuu shrunk a little and scooted forward to sit at his desk properly. Ms. Nakamura nodded and continued on with the beginning of her lesson. Ryuu merely glanced over his shoulder at Gou to be sure that she knew that their conversation wasn't over. Gou merely pressed her lips together to keep from laughing.

Sure enough, when lunch came around, Ryuu pounced on her like a bat out of hell. "What the hell, man! What did you do? Sakarai-san has been staring at you _all_ class!"

Gou took a casual glance across the room where Megumi's desk was in the front of the room. Their eyes met for just a second before she looked away quickly. Gou looked back over at Ryuu who was practically bouncing in his seat waiting for answers. "And I bet you knew that because _you_ were staring at _her_ all class, right?"

Ryuu's face went red and he shrunk a little in his seat. "That's not the point! The point is that she's an ice queen. Nobody gets close to her. And _nobody_ catches her eye. What the hell did you do?"

Gou pressed her lips together thinking back. "I didn't do anything. I just helped her with the papers. That's all."

Ryuu groaned, leaning back in his chair again. "You're so useless, Matsuoka."

He turned away to eat his lunch and Gou shrugged slightly, realizing a little belatedly that by being late that morning, she had forgotten to make a lunch again. She sighed dramatically and was just about to kick at Ryuu's chair to ask where the vending machines were when a neatly wrapped rice ball slid onto her desk. She looked over at Nitori who just smiled.

"I kinda figured you'd be a little unprepared for lunch today after seeing you running through campus," he said.

Gou groaned slightly. "You saw that?"

He gave her a sheepish look. "Everybody saw it. I'm sorry."

Gou let her head fall against the desk. "Just my luck…"

"Although… If it makes you feel any better, a lot of people are saying that you're really good at the butterfly," Nitori continued. "Is it true?"

"Ah… Well, I guess so," Gou admitted, opening her rice ball. "Thank you for this, again."

Nitori just nodded. "You're definitely going to make the team, Matsuoka-kun."

Gou frowned as she took a bite of the sweet rice. She couldn't really _disagree_ with him. Seijuurou had made it pretty clear that she was a shoe in. But there were a _ton_ of seniors on the team and making first string relays at the first competition of the year was going to be her real challenge. And if she didn't overcome it, everything she worked for would be completely wasted. She only hoped that she was good enough to get that far.  
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The whistle was sharp in the air and the first set of relay racers dove into the water. At the back of the line, Gou crossed her arms to keep her fingers from fidgeting with each other. She had thought that today was going to be the second part of the tryouts for the rookies, so she only expected a handful of people there. But the pool was crowded with faces she didn't recognize from the day before all running their own relays in different groups. She was sorted with the new recruits, just like she thought she would be, but watching the second-years and the seniors run laps _with_ them was starting to get her on edge. It was no joke when people said that Samezuka was a powerhouse swim school, and now she was really starting to see _why_.

Nitori trotted up to stand beside her, his hair dripping from the relay he had just finished. He gave Gou a friendly wave that she couldn't help but return and bumped her shoulder with a wide smile. "I knew they said you were good, but I had no idea you were _that_ good," he said. "You swam so fast!"

Gou merely shook her head. Her time was still weaker than she wanted it to be, and she even swam _slower_ today than she did the day before. The knowledge of that was itching at her mind and she bumped Nitori's shoulder back, changing the subject. "What about you? That was a pretty quick breaststroke."

Nitori pulled a face and rubbed the back of his head. "You're just being nice. It wasn't that good. Especially compared to yours."

Gou frowned. "No, I'm not. I actually mean that."

Nitori shrugged it off and stepped forward as the line moved along. Gou frowned. "Why do you always do that?"

He looked at her. "Do what?"

"Compare yourself to others," she said. "You're a perfectly good swimmer, Nitori."

He gave her a small smile that didn't reflect in his eyes. Gou decided very quickly that she didn't like that look. "Thanks, Matsuoka-san, but I've still got a long way to go."

Gou pressed her lips together and refrained from saying anything else. She knew she had a goal to accomplish and getting involved with Nitori's lack of self-confidence was something she probably should avoid. But it was really hard to stand by and see such a kind boy struggle with finding the confidence he needed just because he was rejected once before. Nitori didn't seem to let it bother him though, and he leaned in toward Gou again.

"I think the captain likes you," he said. She felt her heart slam painfully into her chest and she froze in her spot. "He keeps watching you swim."

She subtly looked over to the front of the group where Seijuurou was standing with his clipboard and whistle again. His brows were pulled down in concentration as he scribbled something on the board and lifted his whistle to his lips again as he waved up the next group. He looked like he really took his job seriously. For a moment, she wondered what he looked like when he swam.

"No, I don't think he's watching me," she said after a moment. "He's watching everybody."

Nitori looked over at him as well and gave a slight nod. "I guess you're right," he said. "He's a really good captain."

Gou let that thought linger in her mind as she stepped up to the starting block. She pulled her goggles back down and gave Seijuurou a small, sideways glance. His golden eyes were trained right on her, their expression vivid enough that she could feel it burning against her skin. She took a deep breath and turned away, the vast depths of the waters calling for her again as the whistle blew.  
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Gou sighed lightly as she closed the door to the girl's locker room silently behind her, feeling much more refreshed after changing out of her swimsuit and into dry clothes. She had a bit more of a strategy this time around as practice came to an end and while some of the seniors talked about swim club rules to the new recruits, she silently slipped away to run down the hallway and into the girl's locker room before anyone could see. She didn't know how lucky she would get with this every time, but she figured that nobody would question her wanting an extra hour of personal practice after regular practice every day. But today was a little bit different. She knew that the results of the try outs would be posted about an hour after practice ended and the people who made the team would be named, along with those who were going to swim the relays on the first couple competitions. She felt nervous in a way she hadn't in _years_ and the jitters were starting to actually make her feel sick.

Throwing her backpack down by the door that the list was going to be posted at, she slid to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest. Not much longer, other new recruits started drifting in to sit on the floor beside her, chatting to themselves. Ryuu walked by at one point and kicked at her shoes, giving a thumbs up to her as he headed out toward the dorms and Nitori slid into the spot beside her right after that.

"You left quickly," he said. "I didn't even see you in the locker room."

"I'm just anxious," Gou sidestepped.

Nitori gave her a sympathetic smile. "Me too."

Three awkward conversations, two paper football wars and one agonizingly slow hour later, the door opened and one of the seniors gave the nervous group of new recruits a smile before he turned and taped the list to the door. He walked off as the group flooded up to it, shouts of excitement and sighs of disappointment coming from all the people. Nitori anxiously looked over at Gou as she waited for the people to disperse, her heart beating loudly in her head.

This was it. The moment of truth.

She slowly slid to her feet and walked forward, her eyes trained on the black letters printed on the white paper. She slowly scanned the list, looking for her name. Her eyes paused on Nitori's name for a moment, a small bubble of happiness for him forming in her chest before she continued to look down. Just three names later, was hers. She gave a quiet breath of relief before looking over at the relay teams. Three looks later, she felt the sinking feeling return to her chest. She fisted her hands as disappointment crashed down on her like a tidal wave, and instead of celebrating with the other people who made the team, she turned on her heel and ran.

She ran hard out of the indoor pool building, down the sidewalks through campus and up the stairs of the dorm. She came to a sliding halt in front of the door and fumbled with the key, sliding it into place and throwing the door open. She stood there wheezing, trying to catch her breath as Seijuurou looked up from his textbooks, his expression already schooled into something neutral. He knew she was coming.

"Why am I not on the relay team?" she blurted out.

He gave a quiet sigh and placed his pencil down. "I'll be the first to admit that your fly time is incredible, but it's inconsistent," he said. "In order to win at competitions, we need consistency. And as much as I would love to have you swim with us, I can't rely on you yet."

"Then let me try again! Let me prove it to you," she begged, stepping into the room. "I have it in me. I can do this! I _need_ to be on that relay team!"

He gave her a slightly sympathetic look and said nothing. She felt the sinking feeling tear a bigger hole in her stomach as he stood from his seat to place a hand on her shoulder and give it a gentle squeeze. "I'm sorry, but the decision's been made," he said firmly. "You're just not ready yet, Mastuoka-san."


	4. Chapter 4

_The Twelfth Lane_

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews! I'm really glad you guys are enjoying this story! By placing this story in Samezuka, I found that we didn't really know a lot of the characters aside from Seijuurou, Nitori and Rin, so in order to make this feel as fluid as possible, I kinda had to invent new characters, and I'm glad to hear that a lot of you like them. But, enough from me, back to the story!  
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**Chapter Four**

"Then train me."

Seijuurou's eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion as Gou appealed to him. "Please," she continued. "I really need to be on that team for the competition against Iwatobi. I have something important I need to prove to them."

He sighed slightly. "Matsuoka-san…"

"I swear I won't ask for anything else," she continued. "I'll work hard. I'll do anything you say. If I can prove to you in the next month that I can swim consistent, then please. Please let me join the relay team."

Seijuurou pressed his lips together and let the pen in his hand tap continuously against the desk as he considered her request. Gou squeezed her hands into balls, trying not to let her nervousness get the better of her. She really had no choice but to appeal to Seijuurou. But she had to be careful. He was somebody she wanted on her side, not annoyed with her. Eventually he sat back in his chair and reached up to rub the bridge of his nose.

"Alright," he said. Gou felt her heart leap up in excitement and a wide smile pull across her face, but before she could say anything, Seijuurou leaned forward, leveling a serious look at her. "But don't get me wrong, Matsuoka. I can see the potential that you have, but I'm not going to be easy on you. If you want that spot in the relay team, you're really going to have to work for it."

"I will," she agreed firmly. "I swear."

He hummed slightly, giving her a short once over before reaching onto his desk to grab a piece of paper. "Since I run most of the practices after class, we'll have to train before school," he said, starting to write out a schedule. "Wake up at five every morning during the week, and I'll give you about an hour of intensive training. After that, meet after school for regular practice and stay half an hour later to run relays of the different strokes for progress recording. At the end of a month, if I feel like you're ready, I'll give you the chance to challenge any one of the people currently on the relay team. Here are their names." He handed the paper over with a detailed list of the schedule he just mentioned and the name of eight people on the two relay teams going to the first competition. "If you win against any one of them, I'll give you their spot."

Gou took a quick look at the names he had listed, realizing that he had his own listed for the freestyle on one of the teams. She was only really good at butterfly and freestyle and having him listed on there only narrowed her chances at winning a spot. Unless she was suddenly going to get really _really_ good at the backstroke, she only had three spots she could fight for and one spot she could win. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves and derailed her panicked mindset to give Seijuurou a sideways glance.

"What if I want to challenge you?" she asked in a light tone. She played it off as a joke, but there was a slight note of honest curiosity behind her question.

Seijuurou, caught off guard by it, gave a short laugh that sounded like it was good humor. "You're welcome to try, if you think you can do it," he said lightly, but the expression on his face made it seem like he was actually considering her challenge. "But I'll give you a fair warning. Every person listed has earned their spot by placing first in the individual races for their stroke. Winning against them won't be easy."

"I figured not," she said quietly to herself. "But if it's all the same, I'd still like to try."

Seijuurou nodded, that familiar grin pulling up at his lips. "That's what I like to hear. Now get some rest. We've got an early morning tomorrow."  
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Gou wasn't sure what she expected from training with Seijuurou, but anything she could have imagined actually equaled out to how _brutally strict_ he was. He made her do repetitions after repetitions without much of a break in between, pushing her to her limit and straining muscles she didn't even realize she _had_. By the time it was all over, she was lying face down on the concrete beside the pool, just trying to get feeling in her jelly-like arms again. He didn't apologize or ask her if she wanted to give up, which was good, she thought. He might have been tough on her, but he knew what he was doing. Perks of being a captain, she supposed.

By the time she managed to find feeling in her limbs again, she had to dash off to the showers to get dressed in her uniform that she had (thankfully) remembered to wash this time around, and run to class. She slid into class just barely on time, her hair still wet and dripping down her back. She was handed a packet of stapled papers to take to her desk by Megumi, who gave her a quiet greeting and a shy smile, which she returned casually before sliding into her seat. She put the papers off to the side so that she could lay her head on the desk, exhausted. Beside her, Nitori gave her a concerned look.

"You look exhausted," he commented. "Didn't sleep well last night?"

She gave him a noncommittal grunt. With everything that had been happening in the last few days, Gou wasn't even sure that she had slept at all. But after that morning's grueling training session, she was starting to feel the tired hands of sleepless nights dragging at her mind. She made it a point to prop her book up in front of her, just in case she fell asleep, which she did within minutes. She was woken up a few moments later by the gentle shaking of her shoulder by Nitori, blinking blearily as she looked up to see the teacher staring down at her beside her desk. She jumped in surprise, knocking her chair back as she stood up suddenly blurting out a random sequence of numbers. There were a few chuckles that spider webbed around the room and Ms. Nakamura just sighed.

"If I were teaching math, then maybe I would let you slip, but this is English, Matsuoka-san," she said, crossing her arms. "Go stand out in the hall until you're ready to pay attention."

Gou did as she was told and slunk out of the room to stand beside the slightly cracked door, trying to stay awake as she listened to Ms. Nakamura talk about subject-verb agreements with irregular verbs. In retrospect, she probably would have stayed awake longer if she were talking about space and science as opposed to words, but it wasn't long until Gou fell asleep again, this time standing up. It wasn't until the door slid open beside her that she jolted awake again, catching herself against the window frame before she fell into the person walking out.

"Sorry, sorry," she apologized blearily, reaching up to rub her eyes.

"Erm… Is everything okay, Matsuoka-san?" a voice asked. Gou looked back and realized Megumi was standing beside her, her expression concerned, if not a little flustered.

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "I haven't been sleeping all that well and I woke up really early to do swimming stuff today."

"Oh, I see," she said. "Um, if you don't mind, could you help me go retrieve the papers for next class from the office?"

"Oh, sure," Gou said, pushing herself off the wall. "It might actually help me stay awake longer."

They started down the hallway in silence, Gou still feeling the lingering effects of sleepiness. She rubbed her eyes a few times and stifled a yawn behind her hand. She wondered if it would be a good idea to sacrifice a night of homework to finally catch up on all the sleep she was missing before Megumi interrupted her thoughts with a slight cough.

"I wanted to thank you for the other day," she said, looking at Gou slightly from the corner of her eye. "For helping me with the papers, I mean."

"Oh," Gou said rubbing the back of her head. "You shouldn't really thank me for that. It was kinda my fault for running into you."

"But you helped me anyway," Megumi said quickly. "Most guys wouldn't admit that it was their fault and help someone out."

Gou paused for a second, a rock falling into her stomach. "Oh crap, you're right."

"It's not a bad thing though," Megumi continued. "More guys should be aware of other people. It's refreshing, actually. You shouldn't be ashamed of it."

Gou hesitated to reply. She wanted to agree with Megumi's logic because she was completely right, but she wasn't here to change people's opinions on boys. She was supposed to convince people that she _was_ one. She coughed slightly and rubbed the back of her neck. "You don't think it's too… feminine?"

"Not at all," Megumi responded. "It's a good trait to have."

Gou wasn't sure how to take that or continue the conversation at that point. Megumi probably thought her to be a sensitive boy now, which wasn't a good thing to have circling around. She needed to think of a way to make herself seem manlier. She put that thought in the back of her mind as they approached the office, Megumi knocking quickly on the door. They greeted the teachers there and retrieved the stack of papers she needed to grab. Gou stepped up to take half of the stack and they headed back toward the classroom, half hoping that they weren't going to continue the conversation from before.

"Matsuoka-san, can I ask you something?" Megumi asked then.

Gou felt a curl of nervousness swirl in her stomach and she looked over at her a little reluctantly. "Um… Sure…?"

"Are you free on Saturday?"

Gou paused, blinking slightly in surprise. "Um, well, no. Not really, I guess."

"Great!" Megumi said with a smile. "I was just thinking that I wanted to go into town on Saturday to buy a few things, but it's such a big place with so many people, I didn't really want to go by myself. So… Do you think, maybe, you can come with me?"

Gou gave it a little thought. If she was being honest with herself, she really did need to pick some things up from town anyway, like the new CD she wanted, a couple more casual boy outfits, and a box of tampons. She flinched slightly. Actually, on second thought, that was probably something she'd have to pick up on her own. Glancing over at the pretty girl walking beside her, waiting expectantly for an answer, Gou gave a quiet sigh. "Well… Sure. Why not."

Megumi broke into a wide smile, her brown eyes glittering in excitement. "You will?!" she exclaimed. "That's great! Um, we can probably meet out by the front gates at ten on Saturday morning and take the train to Tottori and—wait, you'll probably need my mail address just in case."

Before Gou could even keep up with her words, she had her phone pulled out and ready to connect with Gou's. Gou slowly reached in her pocket to pull out her own, but froze in her spot, her phone half out of her pocket, when she remembered that she still had that close up shot of the cover model's ab muscles from last month's _Monthly Muscle Magazine_ set as her phone background. She internally cursed her eternal love for a perfectly sculpted abdomen as she sneakily tried to open her phone without Megumi seeing her background. The phones synced quickly with a flashing blue light and Megumi pulled her phone away with a wide smile.

"Thanks again, Matsuoka-san," she said. "You're a really great person for doing all of this for me."

Gou gave her an uncertain smile. "It's no big deal…"

Finally returning to the classroom with all the papers needed for the period after lunch, Gou slid into her desk with a reserved sigh and a couple smacks to her cheeks to keep herself awake for the second half of the day before pulling out the lunch she _finally_ remembered to buy. It was nothing more than a couple loafs of specialty breads and two rice balls from the corner convenience store, but it was better than mooching off of Nitori again. Speaking of him, she took a big bite of the first loaf of bread and gave her seat partner a sideways glance. He had his lunched pulled out and neatly placed on his desk while he finished up organizing his notes, his handwriting neat and formulaic. She considered asking him to give her a quick rundown of the things she had missed in class while she was still sleeping when Ryuu unceremoniously jostled her desk as his chair fell back into it. She gave him a glare and pushed her collection of food away from the edge of the table.

"What's with you?" she asked. "You almost knocked my lunch onto the floor."

He ignored her with a pointed stubborn look for a moment, Takeshi sighing beside him as he turned to look at Gou. "He's jealous that you're talking to Sakarai-san," he said.

Gou wasn't surprised, even when Ryuu sputtered indignantly at his friend. "I could have guessed that much," she said, taking another bite of her food.

Ryuu gave her a put out look before leaning his chair back into its natural state. "I'm not jealous," he denied, despite the looks of doubt the other two sent him. "I'm not! It's just, Sakarai-san hasn't given any of the other guys in class a second look all last year and then suddenly, on the second day of second year, a transfer student comes tripping into the room and BAM. She's head over heels. I just don't get it!"

Gou shook her head slightly. "She's not head over heels for me."

Ryuu went to refute that when Gou's phone buzzed against the table top, Megumi's name popping up. Gou felt a rock sink into her stomach a little when Ryuu's eyes narrowed and he leaned in close to hiss, "You have her number?"

"It's not what you think. She just gave it to me earlier because I was helping her out," Gou said quickly, moving to grab her phone.

Ryuu didn't buy her answer and snatched her phone out of her hand before she could slide it in her pocket. Gou felt her stomach drop instantly. "Then what's she texting you for anyway?" he questioned, leaning out of her reach so that Gou couldn't grab the phone back. "It can't be just to thank you for being such a goody-two shoes lately and carrying her papers for her."

He flipped open her phone to read the message, Takeshi leaning over slightly to see as well. Gou could practically feel her heart ready to beat out of her chest as she struggled to take the phone from him. How the heck was she supposed to explain her background to them? _Oh hey, don't mind the rippling abs, I just love looking at men's muscles_. She was pretty sure _that _was going to go over like a lead brick. But to her belated surprise, they didn't comment on her background, just the message.

"A _date_?" Ryuu exclaimed, quickly glancing over his shoulder to see if anyone heard him before leaning in closer. "What the hell, Matsuoka. Were you lying to me? I thought you said you didn't like her!"

"I don't!" Gou stressed under her voice. "Believe me, she's _not_ my type."

"Then what is?" Takeshi asked causally.

Gou felt her cheeks redden a little bit. "I'm not going to answer that," she said. "Look, I'm just going out with her on Saturday to the city for some shopping. She didn't want to go by herself and I'm just helping her out. It's completely platonic."

"Yeah, maybe to _you_," Ryuu said with a pout, leaning back in his chair. "Man. Why do you have all the luck? I've liked her since the first day of class last year and everything… It's not fair."

Takeshi gave his friend a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. Gou pursed her lips and took a short glance over at Megumi's seat in the front corner of the room where she was happily talking with her friends. She glanced over at Gou and gave her a happy smile, which Gou struggled to return without feeling too guilty about it. Turning back to her lunch, Gou picked at her bread a little uncertainly before remembering that she still had that list Seijuurou had written her the night before. Pulling it out of her bag, she re-read the names a couple times, committing them to memory before leaning forward to pull at Ryuu's uniform collar until he looked back at her with a dramatically downtrodden expression.

"Oh jeez," she said rolling her eyes. "You're going to be fine. Now listen. Do you recognize any of these names?"

She held the paper over his face until he took it, sitting up slightly so that he could read what was written. "Shuichi Tsujimoto, Tetsuya Kurata, Junichi Yamato—these are all swimmers on the relay teams," he said looking up at her. "Why do you have this?"

"I told you. I need to be on the relay team for the competition with Iwatobi," Gou said firmly. "And in order to do that, I need to challenge one of these swimmers for their spot on the team."

"_Challenge_-?!" Ryuu gaped at her, and from the corner of her eye, she saw Nitori do the same. "Do you have any idea what you just said? These guys are like _legends_. They've all won first place in each of their divisions in the last competitions they've been at!"

Gou frowned. "I know that," she said. "But I've got a couple competition wins under my belt too. A couple of trophies don't scare me."

Ryuu shook his head in disbelief. "Mark my words, Matsuoka. You're not going to be thinking the same thing when you see them swim. You've got a snowball's chance in hell getting on that team. Give it up and try again later in the year. They usually let the second years run relays at the end of the season when the competitions are more lax."

"_No_," Gou said sharply. "I don't want to wait that long. I _can't_. I have to try my best to get on the team for the first competition. I _have_ to swim against Iwatobi." She stared at him for a long moment before reaching forward to take the paper from his hands. "If you won't give me any information on them, then I'll find somebody who can."

Ryuu gave Takeshi a silent sideways glance before sighing at length. "I tell you that you're basically going to be swimming against Gods and you spit in my face. You've got some serious balls, Matsuoka," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Fine, I'll help you out. But on one condition: take me with you on Saturday."

Gou blanched. "What?"

"I'm serious," Ryuu said, leaning forward again. "You've pretty much got a shoe-in with Sakarai-san and if I help you gather the information you need to beat one of the school's swimming legends, the least you could do is help me score a girlfriend."

Gou twisted her face, a little irritated that she let herself walk into such a situation. "Fine, whatever. I'll let you come with me." His face lit up instantly. "But I'm not going to help you win her over. If you want her to be your girlfriend, you have to talk to her yourself."

"Done!" he said quickly. A wide grin split across his face and he started randomly punching the air in excitement. "It's finally here! My youthful romance is about to begin!"

Gou gave a drawn-out sigh at his antics, reaching up to rub the bridge of her nose when she realized Takeshi was giving her a strange look. It was harmless enough at first glance, but there was a sharpness to his gaze as he looked at her, like he knew something he probably shouldn't. Something about it was really starting to unnerve her. "What?"

"It's nothing," he said casually, leaning his chin on one hand as he slid her cellphone back onto her desk. Her heart froze in her chest for a short moment and proceeded to plummet to her stomach when she saw a smirk pull at his lips. "Just a bit of friendly advice, though," he said, meeting her eyes with that knowing look again. "You should probably change your background picture before people start asking about it."

Gou could practically feel the mortification smack her in the face, the bell for next class ringing before she could manage to formulate a proper response to his comment. He turned around to resume class with a casual air, leaving Gou to wallow in her own stupidity for the rest of the day and forever curse her incessant love for muscles.  
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"Hana-chan, it's all over," Gou said dramatically into the phone. "I've made the biggest mistake of my entire life and everybody is going to know that I'm a girl and I'll be kicked out before I can even see the sparkling waters of an outdoor pool." She sniffled slightly. "I'll never get to swim against our school now…"

After all that had happened that day, Gou was feeling incredibly drained. She was exhausted, mentally and physically and she wanted nothing more than to just lie face down in her bed and cry for a good twenty minutes. But with Seijuurou still around, she did the next best thing and called her best friend. When he decided to step into the shower for a couple of minutes, Gou let the flood gates go, the edges of her eyes growing moist as she relayed everything she could to Chigusa.

"_Well… That's certainly a predicament, Kou-chan_," Chigusa said with a slight hum. "_Although, I could have told you that having a set of drool-worthy abs as your phone background was going to come back and bite you in the ass one day._"

"I'm so stupid!" Gou cried out, kicking her legs a couple times against her bed in frustration. "I'm done for."

"_Somehow I doubt that_," Chigusa said back.

"Well, what do you think I should do?" Gou asked back, rolling on her side to look out at the room below her. Seijuurou was surprisingly neat and organized. Unlike her. And her life.

"_Hmm… Well, obviously you can't just come out and say that you're a girl,_" Chigusa reasoned. "_Have you thought about telling them you're gay?"_

"No, I can't say that!" Gou protested quickly. "I'm _surrounded_ by boys, Hana-chan! I can't have everyone thinking that I'm g—"

The bathroom door opened then with a soft click and Gou felt her throat close tightly in embarrassment, the words dying quickly on her tongue. She felt a whole different kind of speechlessness take over when Seijuurou exited the bathroom with a slight cloud of steam, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. He gave her a half look as he walked across the room, her eyes unintentionally following the way the muscles on his sides moved as he went to grab a shirt from the floor. He paused before pulling it on and gave Gou a second, slightly more uncomfortable look, which made her realize all too quickly that she was staring a little too obviously. She quickly flipped to face the wall, her heart thumping double time in her throat as a blush burned its way across her cheeks.

"_Kou? Hello?_"

"Sorry," Gou said under her breath.

"_Is everything okay? You sound a little winded_."

"It's nothing," Gou said quickly. "Anyway, let's change the subject… I actually called because I had a question for you."

"_We're not changing the subject, Kou_."

"Hana-chan, please," Gou said softly.

"_Alright, fine. I'll cave. But this conversation isn't over,_" she said. "_What's your question?_"

Gou sighed slightly in relief before wincing a little as she remembered the second biggest piece of trouble she had somehow managed to get herself involved in that day. "I was just wondering… Are you free on Saturday?"


	5. Chapter 5

_The Twelfth Lane_

A/N: Less than a week till the new season of Free! To the few of you who have sent me messages encouraging me to continue writing this story, thank you. I've been struggling a bit with drive due to lack of response, but I'm going to try to get over that and keep my schedule up the best I can. That being said, if you really are enjoying this story, please consider letting me know. It does wonders for my creative process.  
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**Chapter Five**

On Saturday morning, Gou was awoken abruptly by the insanely insistent and loud knocking on her door. Sitting up groggily, she looked around in confusion, her brain not quite caught up with her all the way. The practice the day before had been especially brutal and she fell asleep the instant she hit her bed, and twelve hours later, she was just now starting to realize that Friday was over. Before she could gather her wits enough to go answer the door, Seijuurou had already wobbled his way over there, throwing the door open with a glare at whomever was waiting outside. The surprised gasp of "C-Captain-!" sounded suspiciously like Ryuu.

"You better have a good reason to be beating my door down at this time, Yamaguchi," Seijuurou said darkly. He didn't seem to be a very forgiving person when woken up before he wanted to be.

"I do! I do," Ryuu said quickly, trying to peer around Seijuurou to look for Gou. "You better be awake, Matsuoka!"

Gou rubbed her eyes, stifling a yawn. "What are you doing here, Ryuu?"

"What am I—It's Saturday!" he exclaimed. "You promised that you'd take me with you to town with Sakarai-san, remember?"

It took a few moments, but Gou started recalling that, yes, she did in fact promise him that. "That's today…?"

"Yes, that's today!" he responded. Seijuurou had given up on door duty and had wandered back to his bed, allowing Ryuu to wander into the room so that he could bark at her from the edge of her bed. "Hurry up and get dressed! We're going to be late!"

Gou groggily pulled herself down from the top bunk and sifted through her clothes to look for something clean to wear as Ryuu bounced impatiently beside her. As she fumbled with turning her shirts inside out, Ryuu must have decided that he was done waiting and gave an impatient sigh, reaching over to yank her shirt up over her head. As the fabric caught around her arms, Gou was suddenly not sleepy anymore and jumped nearly three feet across the room to get out of his reach.

"What are you doing?!" she exclaimed, holding her clean clothes against her chest like it would protect her from him.

"You're taking too long!" he said.

"I can change by myself, thank you!" she said.

"I'm not going to be late for this meeting just because you can't put a shirt on faster than a little kid," he said, making a point to walk towards her again like he was going to try for her shirt again. She dodged him. "Stop being so squirmy! It's not that big of a deal. We're both boys—"

"_Yamaguchi_." Both of them froze to look over at Seijuurou glowering at Ryuu from where he was lying face down on his bed. Gou felt an unexplainable rush of relief at the sound of his voice. "Get out."

Ryuu looked conflicted. "But-"

"Don't make me repeat myself," the captain of the swim team said darkly. "_Leave_."

"Right away," he said quickly, starting to back up toward the door. He glanced over at Gou and motioned for her to speed up so that they could go before letting the door shut behind him. Gou let out a strained breath of relief before looking over at where Seijuurou had pulled a pillow over his head.

"Um, thank you," she said hesitantly. Seijuurou didn't say anything, but judging from the grunt, Gou figured he was acknowledging her anyway. She took a moment to calm her quickly beating heart before heading into the bathroom to get fully changed for the day. Less than five minutes later, with her phone and her wallet tucked into the back pocket of her baggy boy jeans, she met Ryuu outside her room. He bounced off the wall with an energy that just wasn't common on a Saturday morning and practically drug her down the hallways towards the gates of the school grounds. Stumbling behind him, she saw Megumi waiting for them, her hair pulled back in a pretty ponytail with a purple ribbon and wearing a white lace dress. Looking down at her t-shirt and jeans, Gou gave a slightly jealous sigh. It was hard acting like a boy when you were actually a girl who loved cute things.

"Ah! Matsuoka-kun!" she said when she saw them, a wide smile pulling at her lips. "Good morning." Gou returned the greeting a little less enthusiastically. Her brown eyes shifted to the boy standing beside her, her lips turning down slightly. "Who's this?"

"My name is Ryuu Yamaguchi," Ryuu said stepping forward. "We've been in the same class since freshman year."

"Oh, I see," she said a little hesitantly.

"He also wanted to buy a few things from town, so I invited him along," Gou explained. "I hope that's okay."

"Oh, yes, of course!" Megumi said quickly, flashing Gou a smile. "No problem at all."

"Great!" Ryuu piped up. "Shall we go then? I'm anxious to go buy those things!"

He stepped forward to lead the pack beside Megumi, who gave Gou a lingering look over her shoulder as she followed. Sighing slightly to herself, Gou followed as well, already getting a bad feeling that something was going to go wrong incredibly quickly and she was just along for the ride. Glancing at her phone, she could only hope that Chigusa was strong enough to derail it before they all went flying off the tracks.

The train ride to Tottori was simple and quick, dropping them off in the costal town's central shopping district right at the peak of the morning's Saturday rush. They headed off toward the shops, taking in the sights and the sounds of downtown as they strolled along. Megumi made it known that she was hoping to head into a 109 to browse through some of the clothes. Gou knew that as a boy, she should probably be a little put out by clothes shopping, but as a girl, she was thrilled. She wandered the store a few feet behind Megumi with wide, interested eyes, lingering on the clothes she thought to be the cutest. She snuck a look once in a while at the prices of some things and held her excitement inside when she saw things on sale. She almost had it down to an art until she saw the pair of heels she'd been eyeing for _weeks_ were finally on sale for a fraction of the price. She gasped out loud, catching Megumi's attention as she picked them off the shelf.

"You're kidding, they're finally on sale?" she exclaimed.

"What are?" Megumi asked, leaning over. "Oh my _gosh_, are those the Vera Cho limited edition ruby red sling backs?"

"_Yes_," Gou said, admiring them closely. "And they're on sale for more than half their normal price!"

"You're kidding!" Megumi said, reaching forward to take the shoes from Gou. "This is amazing. How did you know they were on sale, Matsuoka-kun? They don't have a markdown price."

"O-oh," Gou said, suddenly realizing how _girly_ that last exchange must have been. She glanced over at Ryuu, who was luckily spacing out too much to have caught their conversation. "Um… I have an older… sister who's really into these things."

"You have a sister?" Megumi asked.

"Yeah… Her name's… Rin," Gou said, looking for something to derail this current conversation. _If Rin ever found out about this, he would kill me_.

"She sounds lovely," Megumi said. "You should tell me more about her sometime."

"Yeah…"

"As much as I love talking about siblings and shoes," Ryuu said then, interrupting them. "I'm getting kinda hungry."

Gou looked over at her friend who looked rather put out by the situation at hand, but as much as he annoyed her, she could probably kiss him right then for saving her from that awkward situation. "Yeah, food sounds really good actually! Anybody up for cheeseburgers?"

"That sounds really great, Matsuoka-kun," Megumi agreed, latching onto Gou's arm. Gou pressed her lips together, glancing over at Ryuu uncomfortably. Just as she suspected, he was glaring at her. Sighing slightly to herself, she let Megumi lead them back outside, really hoping this wouldn't end any worse than it had already started. Luckily, fate was in her favor, and as they exited the store, she spotted Chigusa, heading their way.

"Chigusa!" Gou shouted suddenly, waving her over. The other two people she was with gave her uncertain looks as another girl jogged over, the bun on her head bouncing as she smiled at them in greeting.

"Hey Gou-kun," Chigusa greeted. Gou flinched slightly at hearing her best friend use her given name. It was one thing to have people she didn't know call her Gou, and another when her close friends did. She pushed it aside though, just feeling glad that somebody else who knew her situation was finally helping her out. "What are you doing out here?"

"We're shopping," Gou said, following the script that they had planned earlier in the week.

"What?" she laughed. "You shopping? I would have never believed it if I didn't see it."

She gave Gou a wink, and Gou sighed slightly in relief before looking at her still confused new friends, waiting for an explanation. "This is my friend Chigusa Hanamura. She went to Iwatobi with me."

"Nice to meet you," Chigusa said with a smile.

"Nice to meet you too," Megumi said a little hesitantly, eyeing Chigusa uncertainly. Gou felt her eyes turn back to her with a heated, unanswered stare, but before she could get the questions out, Ryuu stepped up to speak with an unusually enthusiastic smile.

"My name's Ryuu Yamaguchi," Ryuu said, stepping up to hold his hand out toward Chigusa. "I was Matsuoka's first friend at Samezuka."

Chigusa took his hand with a smile when Gou scoffed. "First friend? You left me in the locker room to get in trouble!"

"Are you still on that?" Ryuu asked with a slight grimace. "I thought you said it worked out in your favor."

"It did, but you still left me behind," Gou responded. "Friends don't leave friends behind!" Chigusa laughed as Ryuu blushed in embarrassment, Gou cracking a smile as she elbowed him slightly in ribs. "I'm joking. But seriously. Don't leave me behind next time."

"Fine, fine! You win, Matsuoka," Ryuu said quickly, awkwardly looking over at the other girls. "Now can we please go eat something?"

Gou and Chigusa laughed slightly and headed off toward the nearest burger store, the other two following awkwardly in suit. Gou sent an uncertain look over her shoulder at them, who looked a little put out but still somewhat engaged in the situation at hand. They all ate together at the same table and had a pleasant conversation that felt like the most normal thing that had happened the whole day. As they finished up, Gou spotted an ice cream stand nearby and brought it to the attention of the rest of the group.

"I'd love ice cream," Megumi said.

"Me too!" Ryuu said with enthusiasm, sending a smile over to Megumi. She gave him a hesitant smile in response and quickly looked back over at Gou.

"Should we go together to get it," she said. "Will you come with me, Matsuoka-kun?"

Gou hesitated to respond, glancing over at Ryuu who was giving her a pointed stare and then at Chigusa who coughed a laugh into her milkshake. "Um… A-Actually, I wanted to ask Chigusa about something at Iwatobi… Would you mind going with Yamaguchi instead?" Ryuu's eyes lit up at the suggestion, but Megumi looked reluctant, if not a little disappointed. She looked like she was about to retract her statement when Gou quickly spoke up again. "Please, Megumi-san? I'm dying for some chocolate swirl yogurt."

Megumi pressed her lips together as she battled the decision in her mind before finally giving a defeated sigh and a sweet smile. "Okay. I'll do it for you, Matsuoka-kun."

Gou smiled in relief. "Great. I knew I could rely on you, Megumi-san."

Megumi blushed a little in response and stood to leave, Ryuu following after her with a sneaky thumbs up shot Gou's way. As soon as they were out of hearing distance, Gou groaned, dramatically dropping her head against the table. Chigusa started to laugh out loud, grinning when Gou looked over to glare at her.

"Wow, I didn't realize it was that bad," she said.

"I know…" Gou groaned again. "I don't know what to do."

"And you're so suave too," she laughed. "'I knew I could rely on you, _Megumi-san_.' Maybe you should just stay a boy. You'd have girls falling at your feet right and left!

Gou groaned louder. "It's not funny, Hana-chan!"

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry," she said with a laugh. "I'm sorry. You're right. This is quite a dilemma."

Gou peered out at her friend again. "What should I do?"

"Hmm…" Chigusa gave it a little thought as she took another long drag from her milkshake. "I don't think you should do anything."

Gou blinked. "What?"

"Do nothing," Chigusa repeated. "You're at this school for an important reason, aren't you? Just focus on what matters any everything else will work itself out in the process. See?"

Gou looked up to see where she was pointing, finding Ryuu and Megumi standing next to each other in the line for the ice cream stand. Ryuu was talking animatedly and Megumi seemed vaguely interested, a small smile on her lips as she nodded with his story. Gou sat up slightly, giving a small 'huh' of surprise, which Chigusa met with a small laugh.

"Just keep doing what you're doing, Kou-chan," she said. "You'll make it work. I know you can."

Gou let those words sink in, giving her friend a smile. "Thanks, Hana-chan. You're the best."

"You know it," she said with a wink. "Now just make sure you beat Iwatobi at the end of the summer and everything will be worth it. But first, it's time for ice cream!"

Gou gave a quiet sigh as Megumi and Ryuu returned with their treats, her mind suddenly stuck on the fact that she somehow had to make it onto that relay team again. Hana-chan was right. She needed to get her mind refocused again if she wanted to prove her point, and nothing was going to distract her from her goal any longer. She had a point to prove, and that's what she was going to do.

At least, that's what she told herself.

Gou groaned loudly and threw herself back in her chair at her desk later that night, kicking herself hard for not paying more attention in class earlier that week. As she returned home from her exhausting day out on the town, Ryuu reminded her that there was a test on Monday and that she had to score at least a C average to be able to stay on the swim team. Suddenly faced with the very real possibility that she could lose everything all at once, she immediately jumped right on hitting the books hard only to come to a screeching confused halt not twenty minutes later. She was never the greatest at foreign languages (not like her brother, the twat) and she was really starting to wish the test was in Math instead of English at the moment.

"I'm screwed," she said to herself. "I'm so done. I'm never going to pass this test at this rate…"

She stared at the ceiling for a long while before leaning back forward with another renewed vigor to memorize more grammar. She worked her way through a number of sample problems before checking most of them wrong when she looked at the answer book and spent the rest of the hour writing out flashcards. For a while, she considered skyping her brother in Australia for a couple of pointers, but decided she was better off suffering through the text than fielding his pointed jabs at her intelligence, and just continued suffering in silence through the practice problems again. Finally, after an hour of agonizing torture, she gave up trying to figure out the difference between there, their, and they're and stood from her desk with a dramatic screech of her chair.

"Screw this. I need something sweet," she announced to the empty room and grabbed her money and keys off the table to head out to the local convenience store.

She grumbled to herself as she walked down the street to the small shop right next to the train station, not really paying much attention to her surroundings. The convenience store was really close to the dorm and she realized pretty quickly that a lot of Samezuka students frequented the small shop for snacks late at night when they were also frustrated with their homework. She saw a couple familiar faces as she walked in and headed straight for the stand with the specialty cakes, her mouth watering slightly as she looked at all the different selections. She was torn between the peach angel food cake slice and the chocolate éclair when she saw a familiar swatch of red hair peeking over the top of the shelving. Picking the éclair off the shelf, she took a few sneaky steps to peek around the corner.

Just as she had suspected, she saw her roommate and captain standing in front of the magazine section, wearing a simple tank and shorts as he browsed through the latest issue of _Monthly Muscle Magazine_. Gou had to restrain the gasp that came up when she saw that it was the newest issue and she hadn't had the chance to look at it yet. Already, the lovely biceps of the cover model were calling her name, and before she even realized she had done it, she was standing right beside Seijuurou, admiring them. He jolted slightly in surprise when he saw her, which in turn made her jump as well, her cheeks flaring red in embarrassment.

"I'm not staring at you, I swear!" she exclaimed. "It's just… is that the new issue of _Monthly Muscle_?"

Whatever uncertainty he might have been feeling melted away in an instant as his eyes lit up in excitement. His eyes sparkled with a joy she had never seen him express before as he held the issue between his hands like it was made of pure gold. "You read it too?"

"Of course!" she said. "It's only the single greatest magazine in the world!"

"Right?!" he agreed. "It's got everything! The best workout regiments, the most up to date equipment and training methods out there."

"Not to mention the best advice on how to isolate muscle groups," Gou added. "The pictures are by far the most helpful way to see what they're trying to describe. It's almost like they know—"

"—know exactly how we think," Seijuurou finished. "Exactly."

Gou took a deep breath, feeling the excitement of their quick exchange still pumping through her veins. It took her a minute, but she realized how close they were standing with a belated sense of recognition and coughed slightly as she took a step away.

"That was… awesome," she said. "I didn't realize you were so into training. I mean, I _did_ but, I really should have guessed from the—um—yeah." She kicked herself slightly for being so uncool.

"I could have said the same thing about you," he responded. "No offense, but you don't seem like the type that works out that much. You're kind of… scrawny."

Gou laughed a little awkwardly. "Well, you know me. Scrawny and incapable of building any sort of muscle." _Not that I'd really want to… _ "A-Anyway, sorry to bother you. I'll just head back to the dorm to get studying again. I just wanted to…" She gestured vaguely at the éclair still in her hand. "Y'know, eat, or something."

"Actually I was planning to head back too," he said casually, taking a moment to debate putting away the magazine in his hand. In the end he took it with him and grabbed a couple more things before falling in step beside her to purchase their things. He stood there calmly as Gou looked at him uncomfortably from the corner of her eye. Even though they had been roommates for about a week, she didn't feel like she really knew him outside of him being the captain of the swim team. He seemed like a pretty easy-going guy outside of swimming, and as she stood in line beside him, she started to grow curious about the things he liked. He must have had the same idea, for he turned to her after a while with a small smile and said, "Do you always come out here to get éclairs?"

"Ah, well, not exactly," she said. "I'm just trying to escape my English homework. I've been studying for a couple hours but nothing seems to be sinking in."

"Ah, I see," he said, stepping up to pay for his things. "Maybe you can ask Nitori for some help. I hear he's pretty good at studying."

Gou blinked in surprise. "How do you know that? I thought he didn't make the team last year."

"Oh, yeah. I felt kind of bad for having to turn him down, but he had no confidence in himself," he said, stepping aside so that Gou could go up and pay. "He's a decent swimmer, so I've been keeping tabs on him throughout the year. I was glad to see he hadn't given up."

"That's… surprisingly thoughtful of you," Gou said at length. "I don't know a lot of people who would go out of their way for that kind of thing."

"Then you must not know very many people," he said with a joking smirk. They walked out of the store with a distant sound of the cashier thanking them, the warm breeze of early summer meeting their skin. Seijuurou gave a quiet smile of contentment as he looked up at the starry sky above them. "I think everyone's got it in them to achieve great things," he continued. "But you have to believe in yourself first. Nobody else is going to convince you that you're good enough; you have to find that for yourself." He glanced over at Gou, his eyes lingering on her for a long moment. "Which has me wondering… What do _you_ swim for?"

Gou looked at him, confusion pulling at her brow. "What do you mean?"

"Why did you transfer to Samezuka?" he asked. "Iwatobi has a solid swimming record now, especially since Haruka Nanase joined the team. There's nothing you could gain from coming here."

Gou glanced away, uncertain how to answer his question straight out. It was true that their school had achieved great things recently, but that was the _boy's_ team. She couldn't just say that she was trying to prove that she was a strong swimmer because she was actually a part of the girl's team. She pressed her lips together trying to come up with a suitable answer that wouldn't sound so strange when she felt a hand fall upon her shoulder.

"Don't over think it, Gou-kun," Seijuurou said simply. She felt her heart jump slightly at the nickname he hadn't used since the first day he met her. "I can already tell you've got your mind in the right place. I could see it in your eyes on the first day we met." He reached up to ruffle her hair a little bit. "You don't have to answer me, but I just want you to know that whatever the reason is that brought you here, I'm glad it did."

He gave her a smile and let his hand fall away, leaving a lingering warmth to crawl somewhere in her chest. She curled her fingers into the front of her t-shirt and tried to hide the smile that lifted at her lips as she followed him back to the dorm. She might have been pretending to be a boy, but she was still a girl on the inside, and his compliment spoke to her heart. She just had to be careful not to let it show.


	6. Chapter 6

_The Twelfth Lane_

**A/N:** I just want to take this moment to thank every single one of you that went out of your comfort zone to send me a nice message about this story. It really lifted my spirits and you guys are seriously the best! I also recently plotted out the rest of the story and I'm really excited for a few of the chapters coming up soon. XD That being said, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as well!

(Also, now that season 2 has premiered, might I just say that happy, friendly Rin is the single greatest thing ever?)  
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**Chapter Six**

Sunday morning came a lot sooner than Gou would have liked, and before she knew it, she found herself standing in front of Nitori's dorm room, trying to think up a suitable excuse for being there so early in the afternoon. After five minutes of thinking about it and a few awkward glances from the people walking by, she finally gave up and just knocked on the door. After a few seconds of waiting, the door opened up to a shirtless guy brushing his teeth that was very much _not_ Nitori.

"Who are you?" he asked around a mouth of frothy toothpaste.

Gou blushed and averted her gaze slightly. "Sorry. I'm looking for Aiichirou Nitori?"

"Are you his girlfriend or something?" he asked bluntly.

Gou felt her heart skip a solid beat. "N-No!" she said a little louder than she intended. "I'm a boy!"

"Oh," he said flatly, rather unimpressed by her announcement. "Boyfriend, then?"

Gou felt like her face was on fire. "No! I'm just a friend!" she said firmly. "Is he here or not?"

The other boy shrugged slightly and stepped aside to show Nitori sitting at his desk with his headphones on, diligently working on his homework. Gou gave the boy at the door an awkward look and slipped by him so that she could walk over to Nitori. She tapped on his desk next to his hand, which caused him to jump slightly, looking up at her with wide, surprised eyes. He pulled his headphones off and said, "M-Matsuoka-san? What are you doing here?"

"Sorry for just barging in like this," Gou said. "But I'm having a little trouble with studying for that English test and I was hoping maybe you could help me study?"

"English?" Nitori repeated in surprise. "Don't you have an older sibling in Australia or something?"

Gou laughed a little awkwardly and rubbed the back of her neck. "I'd rather not ask him for help. He's more likely to just give me shit the whole time instead of helping me."

To her surprise, Nitori laughed at her statement. "Yeah, that sounds about right," he said. "I have an older brother too, and he loved making fun of me for all the things I did wrong. I don't blame you for not wanting to ask him."

Gou gave a half-smile at his words. "So… Does that mean you'll help me?"

"Yeah, of course," Nitori said, returning the smile. "Just tell me what you need help on."

Gou gave him a wide smile and a breath of relief. "You're seriously the best, Nitori-kun. I really owe you one."

"Nah, it's not that big of a deal," the other boy said with a slightly flattered blush on his cheeks. "Anything to help a friend."

There was a groan behind them as Nitori's roommate rolled his eyes. "Spare me," he grumbled and went to wash out his mouth before grabbing a t-shirt to pull over his head. "Don't worry, I won't stick around to get between you two. I'm out of here."

Nitori sighed as the door closed behind him, giving Gou a slightly apologetic look. "Sorry about him. He's not very friendly…"

Gou frowned. "I can tell," she said flatly. "Now about this English test…"

"Right!" Nitori said with a smile, reaching for a stack of English books at the corner of his desk. "We can start with these."

Gou grimaced a little at it, but sat down in a chair beside him and prepared herself for a couple hours of putting her nose to the grindstone. They worked through workbooks and sample problems, Nitori patiently explaining rules to her when she didn't quite understand them. She was surprised to find out that he was a surprisingly good teacher and had several different methods of explaining things when the first one didn't quite make sense. Three hours later, Gou was starting to feel confident for the first time since she looked at the material and the stress that was dragging her down was starting to fade away. Giving a relieved sigh, Gou leaned back in her chair and stretched her back.

"Mikoshiba-senpai was right! You're really good at English!" she said.

Nitori reacted in surprise to her words, breaking the lead of his pencil as he looked over at her with wide eyes. "The Captain said that…? About me?"

"Yeah! I was surprised too," Gou said, twirling her pencil between her fingers. "But he's a surprisingly thoughtful person, especially when it comes to the people on the swim team. Although, I guess you'd have to be in order to be the captain…"

"But I wasn't on the team last year…" Nitori said softly, looking down at his lap. "How would he know something like that…?"

Gou spun her pencil another time before letting it fall from her fingers. She reached out to place a warm hand on Nitori's shoulder, causing the other boy to look up at her with wide, uncertain eyes. "I'm not the only one who can see you for what you're worth, Nitori-kun."

Nitori stared at her for a drawn-out moment before his lip started to quiver slightly and he turned away to hide the tears that pooled at his eyes. "I… I just… Sorry. I'm not crying."

Gou gave him a sympathetic smile. "It's okay to be happy, Nitori-kun."

He looked over at her again when she said that, glistening eyes wide and excited. "It's just… So many good things have been happening to me lately… So much more than I expected," he said. "And it's all because of you, Matsuoka-san. If you hadn't come to Samezuka… I don't know if I would have had the guts to try again."

"I don't believe that," Gou said in response. "Nobody else can convince you that you're good enough to try again. The only one that can do that is _you_." _Just like Mikoshiba-senpai said to me yesterday_, she thought to herself. "And you've already found the guts in yourself to get up there and try again. You were already halfway there when I transferred. All I did was help point you in the right direction."

Nitori's expression changed by the end of Gou's speech, and she was happy to see a note of self-appreciation and determination in the glint of his eyes that she hadn't seen there before. "You're right, Matsuoka-san," he said. "You're always right."

Gou bit her lip slightly at that statement. "I don't know if I would go that far…"

"No, I mean it," Nitori said back. "I haven't had very many friends before. Most people just think I'm too weak or shy to be friends with. But even so, I can tell that you've been a really great friend. And that's why I still want to thank you, Matsuoka-san."

Gou took in his earnest expression and sighed a little at the warm feeling that blossomed in her chest. "Well… If we're really friends, you should start calling me Gou, then," she said. "Friends don't call each other by their last names."

Nitori blinked in surprise. "But don't you and Yamaguchi-san still call each other by your last names?"

"That's… a different circumstance…" Gou said slightly to the side.

"I see…" he said with a nod that suggested he sort of understood. "Well then… Thank you… Gou-kun."

Gou smiled at the sound of her name spoken so fondly. She had never liked her name much in her life, but hearing it used so many times in the last week, so was starting to become a little partial to it. Especially when it was used by honest and kind people like Nitori. "Anything for a friend, right Ai-kun?"

His returning smile was the brightest she had ever seen him make. "Yeah!"  
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When Gou arrived back in the dorm room later that night, her spirits were high and she felt like she was actually starting to accomplish something during her time at Samezuka, even if it was just to make a new friend. Seijuurou was already lying face down on his bed, his headphones plugged in as he got ready to fall asleep, but opened his eyes for a moment as she was putting her stuff away to remind her about their extra morning practice the next day. After not swimming for two days, she was itching to get back into the water, and she responded to his reminder with a favorable "got it!" She wondered if she should have been a little more formal with her response when he drilled her so hard the next day that her limbs felt like noodles. She was struggling not to groan in the middle of class when the bell rang for lunch, Ryuu flipping around to talk to her immediately.

"Matsuoka, you are a beast," he said, smacking her on the back a couple times. Gou wheezed and sat up to glare at his overly excited grin. "Sakarai-san actually smiled at me today. She even said hello!"

_Great, she thinks of you as a normal person now_, Gou thought. "Well, that's good to hear."

"Hell yes it is," Ryuu agreed. "And it's all because of you."

Gou made a face. "Somehow, I'm not entirely sure that it was…"

"Regardless, I'm gonna make it up to you at practice later," he said. "I'll help you get information for your challenge thing."

Gou felt a bolt of excitement jolt through her. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," he said with a grin. "I'll even show you who's on the relay teams."

Gou couldn't help but let the excited grin pull at her lips. If she had an idea of who these people were, then she could study them at practice and figure out what she was going against. She had a bad feeling that they were going to be a whole lot better than she was hoping, and she wouldn't have her work cut out for her in the end. But a challenge was a challenge, and she was getting excited just thinking about it. She was starting to get excited when Takeshi leaned back between them, taking a casual bite from his sandwich.

"Don't forget that you have an English test to pass first," he commented. "No A, no relay."

Gou and Ryuu groaned in synchronization. "D is passing, right?"

"Don't worry, Gou-kun," Nitori said with a slight smile. "You'll do fine."

Gou appreciated his kind words, but regardless of how long they studied for the day before, the test still kicked her butt. But luckily, she answered more questions than she thought she would and turned in the paper mostly confident and fully finished. All she had to do was hope for the best.

The rest of class passed quickly and before she knew it, she was already heading for the pool, duffel bag over her shoulder and her swimsuit already on underneath her uniform. She shed her clothes quickly and pulled her goggles over her head with an anxious excitement she hadn't felt in a while. She waited, fully changed, by the entranceway for Ryuu to come out, an excited bounce in her step. She bumped him with her shoulder as he entered the pool area, stumbling slightly in surprise.

"What's with you?" he asked, rubbing his shoulder slightly.

"Show me who the swimmers are," Gou said.

"Calm down," he said with a sigh. "They're not even here yet."

"They're not?"

"They swim at a different schedule than us," Ryuu said, walking towards the starting blocks at the edge of the pool. "Mostly because they're all seniors, but also because they've been specially training to beat their old times in the individual races this time around."

"Are they still coming, though?" she asked at length.

"Yeah, they'll be here," he said. "Just run a couple laps and they'll be here before you know it."

He ruffled her hair slightly and gave her a slight shove before heading off to the lap lane for the backstroke. Gou sighed a little in disappointment. Unless he pointed them out, there was a slim chance that Gou was going to be able to watch their styles throughout the practice, and that meant more time wasted when she could be planning her attack. But, there was nothing she could do about it at the moment, so she fell in line for one of the lap lanes to get warmed up.

She took the warm up easy, swimming a leisurely front crawl as she let the water surround her and relax her mind. It felt cool and soothing to the touch, gently massaging her muscles and calming her anxieties as she slowly pushed her way through its calming embrace. By her third lap, she felt like she was at home again, her mind peaceful and her muscles tingling with the warmth of familiar use. She took her time as she pulled herself out of the water, letting the droplets roll down her skin and soak into her swimsuit. She breathed slowly as she stepped away from the poolside, measuring the intake of air with the beats of her heart. Finally, she pulled off her goggles and opened her eyes again, letting the sights and sounds of the practice come back to her. It wasn't until Seijuurou stood beside her that Gou even realized he was watching her.

"Hey," he greeted with a smile. She returned the smile a little uncertainly, avoiding his direct gaze in a futile attempt to slow her suddenly quick heartbeat. He didn't seem to notice. "I just wanted to let you know that we'll be running time trials again today. So, you should get a few practices in on your butterfly so that I can get a good up to date record of where you're at right now."

"Right, okay," she said with a nod. "Thank you, Captain."

"Also," he said, catching her attention as she started to head for the pool again. "You might want to look out for a guy by the name of Shinichi Satoru. He's been out of the country since the start of the semester, so this will be the first practice he's been at this year. You might find something interesting about the way he swims."

He gave a good natured wave and headed off to start the practice. Gou followed after him with her eyes, trying to figure out what he meant by that.

The rest of practice proceeded as normal with regular relay practice and individual time trials. She focused her energy on making her pace as even as possible, and managed to match her last time swimming butterfly. Her 1.03 time garnered a chorus of impressed mumbles, which she tried to play off coolly despite the smile that Seijuurou was giving her. It wasn't until she moved to the back of the line next to Ryuu that the mumbles came to a sharp silence as another name was called.

"Shinichi Satoru."

Gou watched as a boy she didn't recognize stepped up to the starting block. His muscles were tightly toned as any good swimmer's would be, and his expression was that of a cool determination that resounded all the way through his body. He took up his starting position on the block as Ryuu leaned over to her, bumping her shoulder with his. Already, he had done well on keeping up his end of the deal and had pointed out three of the relay swimmers already: two of the backstroke swimmers and the other freestyler.

"Is this another one of them?" Gou asked in whispered excitement. Ryuu's face was surprisingly serious when she looked up at him.

"Yeah," he admitted at length. "But you don't want to try and swim against him."

Gou felt her eyebrows pull down in confusion. He didn't say anything like that with any of the others he pointed out. "Why not?"

"Because… he's a monster," Ryuu admitted. "Ever since he joined Samezuka, he's been smashing records. He only ever gets first place in any competition he swims in and there's yet to be a person who can outswim him at the high school level in the Kansai region."

Gou felt a knot of unease bubble in her stomach, but she pushed it aside with a false show of bravado. "That doesn't sound that scary. I bet I could still beat him."

"No, I don't think you can," Ryuu said flatly. "Because not only is he one of the fastest swimmers we have on our team, but he's also the current holder for the fastest butterfly in the history of Samezuka Academy." His words fell like ice against her spine, spiraling with cool and freezing fingers down to the deepest pit of her. Ryuu's expression was grave when he looked at her. "There's no way you're going to be able to beat him, Matsuoka. It's better if you just go for somebody else's spot."

Gou looked over at Shinichi Satoru again, waiting in cool patience for the whistle to blow. When it did, Gou was sure she felt a chill fall down her spine at the power of his launch. The next few moments felt like she was floating in space, her eyes glued to the perfect form and power of the swimmer in front of her. He swam with textbook precision, taking the turns at the perfect angles and following through with his arms at the exact moments he needed to. He finished his run with a solid 1.01 that caused the earlier impressed mumbles to explode with excitement, cheering him on as he pulled himself out of the water with a wide shit-eating grin that suggested that he was just milking the moment. He pulled off his goggles and his swim cap before his dark eyes looked straight at her. She felt a chill fall down her spine as he began walking towards her with the gait of somebody who only knew how to win. The whispers around her began to grow louder as he stood in front of her, propping his hands on his sides. He reminded her of Haruka Nanase in a way, except with darker eyes and a nastier personality.

"So you're the little newbie I keep hearing about," he said, sizing her up with his eyes. "Kou Matsuoka, was it?"

She felt her stomach flop painfully at his joke, her nerves suddenly feeling on edge at every corner of her body. "It's Gou," she corrected through grit teeth.

"Oh, my apologies," he said with a sharp, mocking laugh. "I could have sworn you were a girl, with you being so scrawny and everything."

"Hey, quit picking on him!" Ryuu said then. Gou glanced over at her friend, surprised by his defense, and a little touched. But his outburst didn't have the same effect of Shinichi Satoru, who shot him a withering glare.

"Stay out of this. This doesn't concern you, _monkey_," he snapped. Ryuu boiled in anger beside her but said nothing. Shinichi just laughed and turned to look at Gou again. "Anyway, I hear you're a little bit good at swimming the fly. Which, in case you didn't know, is _my_ territory. I set the record here, and there's _no chance_ that you're ever going to come close to beating it. So, this is my warning to you. Give up now, or suffer the embarrassment of never managing to be anything more than what you are: _mediocre_."

There was a dead beat of silence where nobody said anything. Nobody even breathed. Somewhere in the distance, Gou heard a drop of water fall from the wet cap in somebody's hands. And yet, despite all the strange tension and the pressure around the room, she couldn't help herself. She grinned.

"Is that what you came to say?" she asked boldly. "Because all it sounds like to me is that you're _scared_ somebody might rise up to steal that title from you."

Every set of eyes went wide and turned to stare at her, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Her body thrummed with the thrill of a challenge. The rise of a challenger that would give her a run for her money and a trophy to take home when she won. Maybe she was being a little cocky, but competitiveness was a trait she shared with her brother, and when faced with an obstacle as irritating as Shinichi Satoru, she couldn't help but step up. The other boy's eyes narrowed at her direct challenge, his cheeks flushing with anger.

"You _dare_ mock me—"

"You threw the challenge first," she said. "And I'm telling you that I'm accepting. Just wait and see. I'll defeat you _and_ your so called 'record.' And when I win, that spot on the relay team in the competition at the end of the summer is going to be mine."

The audience wasn't so quiet this time around and a chorus of excited cheers rose up at the sound of her challenge. She grinned despite herself, the thrill of the moment pumping through her veins. Ryuu's hand fell on her shoulder and squeezed a grin pulling at his own lips. Shinichi sneered at the cheers around the room and leaned in close to Gou, leveling her with a glare that said it all.

"Just you wait, Matsuoka," he hissed. "I'll show you who the best butterfly swimmer at this school really is. And it's _not_ going to be you."

At that line, there was a shrill whistle as Seijuurou called the rowdy team back together to restart the time trials again, and Shinichi walked away to start his own practice again. Gou gave a quiet sigh before Ryuu tackled her from behind and wrestled her into a headlock with a boisterous laugh. She struggled against him in good nature, especially when he started rubbing his knuckles against her scalp, but despite their disjointed laughter, she couldn't shake the feeling that she had just picked a fight where she probably shouldn't have. While he was still a bully with an over-inflated ego, Shinichi Satoru wasn't just all bark and no bite. With a record like his, he was a serious force to be reckoned with and not somebody to be trifled with. And yet here she was, throwing challenges at the best of the best. She gave a quiet sigh and watched with a distantly uncertain look as Shinichi took another perfect dive into the water.

She just hoped she wasn't making a grave mistake.


	7. Chapter 7

_The Twelfth Lane_

**A/N:** Fun fact! I can't swim. Haha That being said, a lot of these numbers I'm using for the times are just what I've researched from online. (For the 100 meter course, for those curious) Which, unsurprisingly, is a lot more difficult to pinpoint than you would think. So, I appreciate all of you that give suggestions about what would sound a lot more believable and I've gone back to make that a little more consistent. So, thank you!

And DEAR LORD. These new episodes are just SINGING to my soul. I am SO in love with the new Samezuka team. I just miss Seijuurou ;A;

Also! You're more than welcome to follow me on my tumblr (I'm kaytoko on there as well) to follow all my stupid screaming about swimming boys and other fandoms I dabble in along with catching all the tumblr exclusive oneshots and drabbles I tend to write in between writing this story. So if you need more SeiGou, that's a good place to find more!

But enough from me. Onward to the story!  
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**Chapter Seven**

"I've made a terrible mistake," Gou groaned, flopping face down on Nitori's bed.

The other boy gave her a sympathetic smile from his spot at his desk. "It's not that bad, Gou-kun. You've just got to keep trying."

"No, I can't,' she moaned. "The math gods are out to get me. I'm never going to pass this test."

"You passed the English one fine two weeks ago. I think you'll be able to do this one as well," Nitori said calmly, going back to writing out a set of flashcards for a different class.

Gou made a dramatic groan again, but she knew that he was right. He was a much better tutor than she could have ever asked for, and an even better friend. Over the three weeks she had spent at Samezuka, Nitori had quickly become her closest friend and biggest support. He reminded her a lot of Chigusa, if Chigusa was a shier boy, but the familiarity of their friendship was relaxing for her. It helped take her mind off the more stressful things that plagued her mind. Like the upcoming race with Shinichi Satoru.

The following day after she threw her challenge at the record holder of the butterfly, she immediately started regretting her impulsive decision to confront him. Throughout her entire childhood, Rin had always been the better swimmer in their family and, as a younger sister who was constantly teased by her brother, it was only natural for her to rise up to a challenge. Especially when it came to swimming. She didn't even give it a second thought. Two weeks later, the cutoff date for the relay teams was coming up quick, and she was starting to regret not just choosing somebody easier to race. Because Shinichi wasn't just laughing at her challenge and remaining confident that he was going to win, he was improving every day and breaking his own records to prove it. His fastest time started out as a solid minute, and after two weeks of constant practice, he broke it _twice_ and it now sat at an unreachable 58 seconds. Even at Gou's fastest, she could still only garner a 1.01, and for the first time since she started swimming with Samezuka, she was feeling like she had bit off _way_ more than she could chew.

Rolling on her side, she absentmindedly flicked a crunched up ball of paper off the bed towards Nitori, watching it roll across the floor to settle beside his feet. He looked down at it before casually kicking it back, giving his friend an uncertain look when Gou didn't react to it. He gave his pencil a couple twirls around his thumb before speaking up.

"Are you actually that worried about the math test, or is it something else?" he asked.

"I'm still having nightmares about long division, if that's what you mean," Gou responded with a wince.

"Ha. Ha," Nitori said, unamused. "You know what I'm asking about, Gou-kun."

Gou sighed and rubbed at her eyes. "I dunno, Ai-kun," she said quietly. "Maybe I'm not meant to be better than this. He's already broken his own record twice and I haven't even touched his first one. How am I supposed to out swim him like this?"

Nitori hummed slightly, thinking it over. "Maybe the answer is a lot clearer than you think," he said after a moment. "It kinda sounds like you're overthinking it."

"Is it even possible to overthink swimming?" Gou asked flatly.

"You're the one doing it, not me," Nitori responded. "All I'm saying is that you're overdoing something. Maybe you should give it some thought."

Gou a face and stuck her tongue out at him, but tucked his advice away in the back of her head. She glanced down at the time on her phone and groaned as she went to sit up. "I've gotta go. I promised Mikoshiba-senpai that I would run an extra practice tonight before the meeting in the morning. Something about 'one last blast to do your best!' or whatever." She grimaced as she pulled her duffel bag over her shoulder. "He's been way too enthusiastic about helping me out since I challenged Satoru. It's almost scary…"

"I'll send your family flowers when you die," Nitori said back earnestly. Gou tossed her shoe at him as she went to leave. "Just remember, Gou-kun," he said as she opened the door. "Don't think too much and you'll do fine. I know you can do it."

She smiled in response. "Thanks, Ai-kun."

She knew he had good intentions, and maybe he really was onto something, but after run after run of crappy times and building frustrations, Gou couldn't think of anything except improving. After a particularly slow run, Seijuurou just sighed and kneeled down by the edge of the pool where she was still trying to catch her breath. She looked up at him, getting the feeling that whatever he was going to say, it wasn't going to be good.

"Something tells me that you're distracted," he said.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly, pulling herself out of the water. "I know I can do better."

"I know you can do better too," he agreed. "But knowing that isn't really going to change your times right now." Gou pressed her lips together, disappointment settling like a rock in her stomach. She slowly pulled the swim cap off her head, watching the droplets fall from her hair as Seijuurou moved to sit down beside her. He placed his stopwatch and clipboard down and turned to give her his full attention. "Why don't you tell me what's on your mind."

Gou twisted her fingers into the plastic straps of her goggles, trying to fight through the thickness forming in her throat. "It's stupid…"

"If it's holding you back, then it's not stupid," Seijuurou responded simply. "What is it?"

She glanced over at him uncertainly before giving a quiet sigh. "It's just… I'm not improving," she said. "There's still so much I need to accomplish before the end of this month and if I can't make the relay team…" She let her words trail off as the cold fingers of failure squeezed at her heart.

Seijuurou eyed her for a moment. "This is about Shinichi Satoru, isn't it?"

She shrugged slightly. "Maybe it was too cocky of me to challenge him."

Seijuurou just laughed at that. "Hardly. The kid needed something to kick his ass back into gear. At least now he's swimming the way he should be."

"Which doesn't help me at all," Gou sighed. "It's just… How am I supposed to defeat somebody who just keeps getting better? It's like, no matter how hard I try, he's just one step ahead of me. And at this rate, I'm never going to catch up to him in time."

She kicked at the water slightly, feeling a little more down than the moment before. From beside her, she heard Seijuurou hum slightly as he thought over her words. "Well, you're not wrong," he said. Gou frowned at the thoughtful certainty in his tone. "But you're not quite right either."

She glanced over at him feeling a little confused. "What does that mean?"

"It means you're overthinking things," he told her. She stared at him, hearing the echo of Nitori's advice in her head. "You're right that you're not going to catch him at this rate," he continued. "You're trying to fight him on his own playing field when he's already got the mechanics down to an art. It's almost impossible to beat him at his own game." He looked over at her, a small smile on his lips. "But that's not how you swim."

She pressed her lips together, a hesitant feeling bubbling up in her chest.

"Do you know why I agreed to train you, Matsuoka?" Seijuurou asked. She shook her head uncertainly. "It's because I saw something in you that I haven't seen in people for a long time." He reached out lightly to tap the edge of her collarbone, right above her heart. "Determination. You have something to prove and you're willing to do anything to make that dream come true. You don't swim perfect, Gou-kun, but your swimming has passion, and that's why I know you can beat him."

He gave her a smile that warmed her heart somewhere deep in her chest. She watched as he picked up his stopwatch and his clipboard and went to stand up again. He offered her a hand to help stand up, which she took and let him lift her to her feet. He placed a warm, encouraging hand on her shoulder.

"Stop thinking about _how_ to swim," he told her. "Just swim."

She let a smile curl up on her lips as the determination she hadn't felt in a couple weeks came roaring back to life in her heart. It was about time she stopped moping around and actually _did_ something to change her circumstances. "Right."  
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The next morning, Gou was feeling a little more confident in herself as she headed out for morning practice that Saturday. She met Nitori and Ryuu in the pool area, ready to swim when she realized something else was going on. Nobody was in the pool and they were all gathered around the meeting board, passing around a stack of papers to take. Gou picked one off the top of the stack it passed by and read the bolded title that was written in a funky font that was supposed to be fun.

**Samezuka Summer Training Camp!**

She felt a rock plummet in her stomach and she elbowed Ryuu in the ribs who unceremoniously yelped at the attack. "What is this?" she demanded.

"Jeez, what did I ever do to you?" he groaned, rubbing his side. "What's the big deal? They announced this trip last week. We're heading out to an island to a special training facility that we go to every year. Weren't you paying attention?"

She was sort of starting to recall the meeting that supposedly happened, when Seijuurou called them to attention at the front of the room. "Okay, listen up! Our summer training camp starts this afternoon! We'll be clocking your times today to give you a goal to work towards by the end of this week, so be sure to give it your all! As soon as you finish, you're free to leave and go pack your stuff. The busses leave no later than 3 pm, so don't be late! You'll get your room charts when we arrive at the island, so don't ask me about that anymore, got it?"

There was a chorus of responses from the team around her, but Gou's eyes were stuck on the line in the packet that explained their rooming situations. They were going to be put into four large rooms to conserve club funds, so they were suggested to pack light and not do any "weird squirmy stuff that nobody would want to see". This usually wouldn't have been much of an issue to her, but this would be the first time she had to sleep in a room with somebody besides Seijuurou at Samezuka, and she was suddenly feeling a _whole_ lot more nervous than she did before.

"Hey, everything okay, Gou-kun?" Nitori asked. "You look a little pale."

"N-no, I'm good," she forced out with a weak smile. "Everything's fine."

Nitori didn't look entirely convinced but chose not to press her on the subject. Which was probably better, because Gou couldn't get her head together enough to keep her story straight in that moment. The practice ended quickly with everyone's times being written down and Gou didn't even bother to stick around to hear what it was. She ran back to the dorm rooms to figure out a game plan for this week long trip that she so conveniently forgot about. She slowly packed her duffel bag, giving herself a pep talk as she stuffed a couple tampons into the secret interior pockets.

"It's okay. You've done this before. You've just gotta be careful, Gou," she said to herself. "Watch your back, be alert. Act manly. Everything should be fine."

An hour and a half into the trip and Gou was completely certain that everything was, in fact, _not_ fine. She realized very quickly that she was _lucky_ to have a roommate like Seijuurou and friends like Nitori. Ryuu was the closest thing she had to a bus full of teenage boys and even then it was still overwhelming for her. It was just loud voices, thrown objects and whistles as they drove past pretty girls walking on the sidewalks. The whole thing was just giving her a headache and she tried to curl up into a ball into her seat and ignore it the best she could. It only lasted a little bit before something was bounced against her head and she bolted upright with a nasty glare at whomever did it. From the seat behind her, Ryuu laughed, holding a ball in his hand.

"What the hell," she hissed at him.

"Woaah. Calm down, Matsuoka," he said cheerfully. "This trip is supposed to be _fun_. What are you so stressed out for?"

Gou gave a drawn out sigh and flopped back in her chair. "It's nothing…"

"Alright, whatever," Ryuu said. "Now listen up! I have things to tell you about Sakarai-san. Turns out she's actually pretty well-versed with sports, which is surprising because she's so book smart, y'know? She said her favorite sport was baseball, but she said she could easily like swimming because it's such a quick exciting race. She even said she'd come to one of our competitions when they get started."

"Not that she'll see you swim or anything," Takeshi commented beside him.

Ryuu shoved him. "I'll be at one of the competitions this year. I'm almost good enough to run some singles races in the lower divisions." He paused for a second and looked back over at his friend. "What are you doing here? You don't even swim."

"I don't have to swim to enjoy a vacation to an island," Takeshi casually responded, taking a sip out of his juice box.

"It's not a vacation," Ryuu protested. "It's an intensive training camp that tests the minds and bodies of young boys and helps them reach their full potential to become fully grown _men_. This isn't just a _vacation_. It's a _journey_."

"Maybe a journey for _you_," Takeshi said, sliding back to his seat. "But I'm just here to enjoy summer vacation."

Ryuu rolled his eyes. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Sakarai-san is finally warming up to me. I'm getting a good feeling. She might actually… _like_ me."

"And I like Cheese Whiz," someone else shouted from the front of the bus. "Sit down, Yamaguchi!"

Ryuu threw the ball in his hands toward the boy who shouted, cracking a laugh when the other boy got smacked straight between the eyes. He dropped back down to his seat as the ball came hurdling back over his head. "_Anyway_. What I'm trying to say is that I think things are going well. Do you think maybe she'll say yes if I ask her out?"

"I don't think anybody would say yes if you asked them out," Takeshi commented beside him. Ryuu elbowed him again.

"I dunno," Gou said slowly, giving it a little thought. "It sounds like she's interested, but you can't be too sure."

Ryuu looked a little defeated. "Why not?"

"Because," she said, turning around to face him. "Girls are complicated. They could be really nice to you all the time, but you'll never know if she's just being polite or not. Girls naturally take a more passive stance when it comes to dealing with boys that like them. They don't want to hurt your feelings if they don't like you back."

There was a beat of silence in which Gou realized her statement was a little _too_ insightful on the female mind. She coughed slightly, straightening her shoulders and pretended not to notice the knowing stare Takeshi was giving her again. "I mean, yeah, absolutely. If you ask her out she's gotta say yes. I mean, who could resist those manly charms, right? Manly. Manliness…"

"Um…" Nitori gave her a strange look, turning to face the other two behind them as well. "I think what Gou-kun is actually trying to say is that you should be careful. You can't know for sure right away, so you should just take things slow for a while."

"He's right," Takeshi chimed in calmly. He closed his eyes to sip at his juice box again and Gou gave a quiet breath of relief at the release of his knowing stare. She had a feeling he was onto her from the very first day she transferred to Samezuka. She had far too many close encounters with him already and he wasn't the oblivious type like Ryuu was. She didn't want to admit it, but having him on this trip actually made her a little nervous.

"I dunno," Ryuu was saying when she came out of her reverie again. "Maybe I'm not really doing anything right. Why are girls so complicated?"

"They're not complicated," Takeshi said with a loud sound of air being sucked out of the now empty juice box. "You're just dumb."

"That's it! I've had enough of you!" Ryuu exclaimed and started wailing on Takeshi who gleefully fought back. The two of them wrestled loudly in the seat behind Gou, the rest of the bus gradually getting louder with people cheering them on. She'd seen them fight like this before and knew it was all just lighthearted fun, but she couldn't help but feel her headache starting to return. Just an hour and a half in and she could already tell that this was going to be a long trip.

Two hours later, Gou was jostled awake by the bus misjudging how far away a curb was, a chorus of alarmed shouts tricking into loud laughs chasing away what remained of her nap. She stifled a yawn and looked out the window, noticing that they had finally neared their destination, the curve of an island coast running parallel with the bus. The sun was already sinking lower on the horizon, slowly starting to cast an orange glow on the sparkling surface of the ocean. She watched the beach roll by them for another ten minutes as they pulled into the parking lot of the _ryokan_, its traditional decorations and rice paper doors already calling her name. She could feel the excitement of the other boys on the bus as they started to stand up and grab their things from the bins above their heads, the buzz of enthusiasm encouraging her onto her feet as well. She stretched out her tired limbs some, pulling her arms over her head when something caught her eye. She paused and looked out the window, her heart immediately dropping to her stomach at the sight.

"Ai-kun," she said softly, catching Nitori's attention as he pulled their bags down from the top compartment. "Is that who I think it is…?"

Nitori leaned over to look out the window as well. "Oh, look at that. Iwatobi did decide to join us after all."

"Iwatobi?" Ryuu repeated. "Isn't that where you went to school, Matsuoka?"

She could already feel the anxiety pooling in her stomach as she watched the group of white and blue jacket wearing boys enter the _ryokan_ next to theirs. She was already not excited to spend a whole week in close quarters with a huge amount of boys and it _really_ wasn't helping that the only people who could possibly expose her secret without even trying stayed in the room next to them. She was going to have to think of some kind of quick solution and _fast_ or everything she had worked for would be completely in vain.

It wasn't until after the sun had gone down and they had settled into their rooms that Gou managed to think of some sort of semi-decent plan. In her state of panic, she somehow came up with five different plausible stories just in case somebody asked one of the Iwatobi boys and found out the truth before she could do damage control, but as they started to settle in for bed to prepare for the next early morning, she was relieved that she might not have to use more than just one. She waited until she started hearing soft snores from the boys around her before she quietly snuck out of the room and made a beeline for the hotel next door. It didn't take her long to find which room the boys were staying in, thanks to Nagisa's love for staying up late to watch the stars, and she found her brother's old friends all sitting out on the back porch of one of the rooms, looking up at the sky. She snuck her way over to them and cleared her throat a couple times to catch their attention, their eyes going wide as if they had seen a ghost when they looked at her.

"Rin…?" Makoto asked into the night at a whisper.

"No," Haru corrected him softly. "It's Gou."

"Eh?!" Nagisa exclaimed loudly. "Gou-chan!? Why do you look exactly like Rin-chan?!"

"Shh!" she said quickly, looking around to see if anybody had heard. "It's kind of a long story."

"The girl's swim team got cut, so you decided to sneak into our rival school's swim team as a boy to prove that girls can swim just as strongly as boys can," Rei said coolly, pushing his glasses up on his nose.

Gou sighed. "Okay, so it's not really that long of a story. But, hear me out! You guys know that I'm a good swimmer. I swam with you guys all the time when we were little," she explained. "I love swimming. You guys know this. And I didn't want to have to give it up just because our principal thinks boys can swim better than girls. I want to prove to him—to _everyone_—that girls are just as capable as boys and that we deserve a chance to do what we love too. You guys understand… right?"

The four boys looked between each other, Makoto finally breaking the ice with an understanding smile. "Of course, Gou-chan."

"Yeah, Gou-chan!" Nagisa agreed. "You've definitely got what it takes to show them whose boss!"

She felt a huge wave of relief rush over her that she hadn't felt in weeks. "I knew I could count on you guys," she said with a smile. "So, then, do you think you guys could help me out in keeping my story straight? Nearly everyone on the Samezuka team knows I transferred from Iwatobi. I can imagine that a few of them would be curious enough to ask somebody from here about my old record."

"And I'm assuming you just want us to tell the truth, correct?" Rei supplied. "With a few adjusted pronouns of course."

"No need to sugarcoat it," she said with a slight smile. "I wouldn't have taken on this challenge if I didn't have the credentials to back it up."

"That's what I like to hear," Rei agreed.

"I just have one question, Gou-chan," Makoto said. "Does Rin know about this?"

"Actually… No," Gou said, averting her eyes slightly. "And I'd rather keep this a secret from him a little longer, if you don't mind. I can't imagine that he'd take me sneaking into another school dressed as a boy very well." The other boys mumbled quiet agreements with her statement. "Well anyway, I've gotta get back to the room before anyone notices that I'm gone. Thanks for hearing me out, you guys. And helping me out with my thing."

"You're welcome, Gou-chan," Makoto said kindly.

"Go show them who's the man!" Nagisa cheered.

She waved them goodbye with a content smile on her face as she started following her path back to the other hotel. For the first time in a _long_ time, she was starting to feel like things were finally going her way. She was still kind of nervous about some things, but her biggest worry since they arrived at the island seemed to be covered, and now she could finally focus all her energy on what really mattered. She turned the corner of the _ryokan_ with a skip in her step only to run face-first into whatever was standing there. She stumbled back a few steps, feeling a little disoriented until she realized just who exactly she had run into. She shot a panicked look back around the corner where the Iwatobi boy's room was and realized it wasn't that far away and judging from the look on Seijuurou's face, he had heard every single word.

It only took her three seconds to fully realize just how _fatal_ the situation really was and her fate was sealed by his next three words.

"You're a… _girl_?"


	8. Chapter 8

_The Twelfth Lane_

**A/N:** YES HI. EARLY UPDATE. This is mainly because I'm going out of town this weekend and won't be able to update properly, so forgive me for this chapter being a little on the short side. That being said, HOLY REVIEWS. I don't know what happened but thank you?! I am so floored by the incredible positive response you guys have given for this story! You guys rock like so much. I can only hope that I'll continue to bring you good content to keep you guys interested. So, here's the chapter you guys have been waiting for! (and DEAR LORD. I STRUGGLED WITH THE BEGINNING OF THIS CHAPTER)  
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**Chapter Eight**

Gou felt her eyes widen at the quiet sound of his question, the note of disbelief ringing in her ears like the after effects of a gun going off at close range. Her head felt light and her breath came in quick, short breaths as the panic slowly started to pump through her veins, pulling the moment from slow motion disbelief to an instant anxiety attack. She saw his expression shift as he tried to comprehend the moment at hand and she realized all at once that she should _say something_. His brow pulled down and just before he could open his mouth to say something, she lunged forward to silence him, throwing him off balance as he stumbled back against the side of the hotel with a jarring bang.

"I'm sorry!" she blurted, pressing her hands against his mouth. "Please just let me explain first!" He looked at her with dazed and confused gold eyes, but didn't try to pull away. She tried to calm her frantically beating heart and get her jumbled thoughts in order. This was it. This was the only chance she had to make things work or it was all over before it had even really started.

"Please understand," she said. "I wasn't trying to deceive you, I swear. It's just that… My swim team was cut at Iwatobi. The coach, the principal, everyone I talked to told me that it was ludicrous that a girl join the boy's team to swim and that I couldn't possibly keep up. But I couldn't just sit back and let them say that. Swimming is my_ life_. It means everything to me and I couldn't just sit back and let them take that away from me. I wanted to prove to them that I was good enough. That I could swim with the boys and still be a contender. That my gender has _nothing_ to do with how I swim or my ability to swim. That I _am _capable to swim with the best and still come out on top. I want… I _need_ to prove them wrong."

She was breathing heavily then, the emotion behind her words making her fingers shake with fear. But as she looked at Seijuurou's eyes, she didn't see distain or contempt for her actions. She just saw a quiet understanding that was so clear, it shook her straight down to her heart. She felt her fingers slip away from their tense hold over his mouth and she took a hesitant step back. "Please," she whispered. "Please don't turn me in."

For a long moment, Seijuurou didn't move. He just stared at her with his eyebrows pulled in and his back against the wall, sizing her up with his eyes. She stood there nervously, fidgeting her hands against the fabric of her shorts, growing more and more anxious with the passing of every second. But after a while, he gave a quiet sound that sounds a little like a laugh and reached up to rub the bridge of his nose.

"Wow," he said. "It's so obvious now. I can't believe I didn't see it before…" Gou said nothing and just pressed her lips together. Seijuurou rubbed the back of his neck as he thought for a moment before pushing himself away from the wall and facing her. "Well, alright then."

Gou stared at him in confusion as he started to walk towards the exit nonchalantly, her brain catching up to the situation a little belatedly. "Wait! You're not… mad?"

He shrugged slightly. "I'll admit that I'm a little surprised, although I thought the secret you were so desperately trying to keep would be something else…"

"But why?" Gou asked.

Seijuurou paused in his steps to turn and look at her again. "It's because of what you said. You're here to swim. If you had snuck in for any other reason, I might have been a little more upset. But you've got a purpose and a drive worth sacrificing for. You're willing to do whatever it takes to do what you love, even after your big secret has been revealed. Your determination hasn't faltered and I can respect that." He met her eyes with his own. "I won't turn you in."

Gou stared at him, a warm feeling bubbling in her chest. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Mikoshiba-senpai…" she whispered. "Thank you."

"It's no big deal, Gou-kun," he said, but his expression shifted instantly as he backtracked a little. "Er, sorry, not Gou-kun. I mean… um, what's your name again…?"

Gou gave him a half smile as she started to follow him. "It's still Gou, actually. My parents had an affinity for history and a bad sense of humor."

"Oh, like Nagamasa Azai's third daughter, right?" Seijuurou chimed in.

"Yeah… That's right," she said, glancing at him suspiciously. "How do you know that?"

He shrugged a little. "I kinda had a thing for the Tokugawa era when we were studying it in first year."

"Oh jeez. You and my dad would have really gotten along well," Gou said with a drawn out sigh. "Anyway, my friends usually call me Kou, since Gou sounds too masculine. But I guess, in this case, my boyish name actually worked in my favor for once."

"Well, in your parents' defense, I actually like Gou better," Seijuurou said simply. "It sounds cool, it has a rich history to it, and, to be honest, I think it suits you better." She looked over at him in disbelief and he gave her a slight grin. "A girl who's willing to go so far as to disguise herself as a boy to swim at a rival school couldn't _possibly_ have a regular old name like Kou."

His words caught her off guard, and to Gou's surprise, she her lips turned up in an amused smile. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

She didn't catch the look he gave her as they started down the short wooden sidewalk back to the hotel Samezuka was staying in, instead turning to look up at the sky above them. The night sky was bright out on the dark ocean, no distant city lights flooding the stars out of the sky, and they wrapped like ribbons of twinkling light across the inky darkness. For the first time since they arrived on the island, Gou felt her nervousness trickle away and leave her in a comfortable, relaxed stupor. The gentle summer breeze tossed at her short hair, and she took a deep breath to ebb away what little anxiety she still felt.

"Well, we're here," Seijuurou said, pulling her out of her brief reverie.

She looked over to see the doors to their own hotel waiting for her to return to, and glanced back at her captain curious why he made a statement like that. "Are you not coming in too?"

"Actually, I'm going to get back to that run I was on earlier," he admitted. "I got a little distracted when I saw you heading into the other _ryokan_, and with everything that just went down, I didn't really get around to doing it."

"O-oh," she said with a strangely forced smile. "Right."

"But don't worry," he said quickly. "Your secret is safe with me."

His expression was earnest in a sort of way that Gou hadn't seen in a long time, and if she was being completely honest, it was actually a little endearing. She let the strange warmness settle in her chest again and let a real smile lift up at her lips with the gratitude she felt towards him. "Thank you, really, Mikoshiba-senpai," she said. "You have no idea what this means to me."

He looked a little caught off guard by her sincere thank you, but she could tell that the meaning behind her words wasn't lost on him. He rubbed the back of his neck a little, avoiding her eyes shyly. "You're welcome," he said softly. "And it's Seijuurou, by the way."

She blinked in belated surprise. "What?"

"My name," he clarified. "Y'know, so that you don't have to keep calling me senpai."

"Oh," she said, her cheeks warming a little. "Right. Okay… S-Seijuurou… kun."

Despite her embarrassment to use his first name so familiarly, she felt captivated as his lips curved into a slightly lopsided grin in response, making her heart flutter slightly at the sight. She let her eyes linger longer than she probably should have, that warmth in her chest growing again.

"Okay well, I'm gonna get out of here," he said after a little bit, backing up towards the sidewalk. "We've got an early practice tomorrow, so you should probably get some sleep."

"Right! Right," Gou said quickly. "That's probably a good idea."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Well, good night, Gou-kun."

She smiled, the blush still warm on her cheeks. "Good night, Seijuurou-kun."

He met her smile with one of his own again before awkwardly transitioning into his run. As he disappeared down the sidewalk, Gou gave a quiet sigh and tried to calm down her quickly beating heart. She wasn't entirely sure what just happened, but it felt like she had just dodged a serious bullet and somehow gained an ally at the same time. If she was being completely honest with herself, it was actually a _relief_ that somebody knew her secret, but she couldn't let herself grow complacent. If anybody else found out, she had a feeling things wouldn't end so smoothly a second time.

She re-entered the _ryokan_ as quietly as possible, sneaking her way back down the quiet halls toward the room where all the other second-years were staying. She had set up her bedding earlier as close to the wall as possible with the intent on sneaking out without disturbing anyone and making it easier to find her spot when she returned. She slid the door open as quietly as possible, slipping in through the narrow opening as silently as she could. The room was dark enough that she couldn't see anybody, but she could hear the soft snores of her teammates as she softly closed the door behind her. She gave a quiet sigh and took a step forward to head back to her bedding when she was tackled to the floor by an unknown attacker.

"Sneaking out at night, Matsuoka?" Ryuu asked, wrestling Gou into a full-body lock as she struggled to escape.

"What the _hell_, Yamaguchi!" she cried. "Let go of me!"

"Not till you tell me what you were doing out there!" he said back. "I saw you out there with the captain. What are you doing with him? Spying? Gathering information about Iwatobi without us? Spending _quality time_ with him? Hmm? Say it, Matsuoka!"

"Ow, _ow_! Okay! I'll tell you! Just let me go!" she said, feeling her arms pulling out of her sockets slightly. He released her as she requested, Gou standing up to her feet to glare at him fully. Their wrestling match woke up a couple other people who were not sitting up watching them, sleepily wondering what was going on. Behind her, she caught Nitori looking up from his futon, curiously waiting for her response. She didn't realize she'd be confronted about it so quickly and frantically flipped through all the possible excuses she could possibly give him that might make sense. She went with the first thing that came to mind, which, unfortunately, was also the _truth_.

"Fine, you caught me. I'll admit it," she said with a sigh. "I've been doing extra training with the Captain since the first week I got here."

There was a brief moment of silence before the other boys made loud sounds of surprise.

"Ehhhh? You can do that?"

"No wonder he's been improving so quickly!"

"It must be because of Satoru's challenge!"

"Ahh, that would actually make sense for why he's always disappearing after practice."

There was a chorus of agreeing hums to that last comment and Gou gave herself an internal high-five for picking the right excuse to give them. Sometimes the truth actually _was_ the best option. "What you saw earlier was a part of that training," she explained with a relieved sigh. "We were just going out for a late night run."

"Well, I guess that makes sense," Ryuu said with a slight note of disappointment. "But why all the extra practices then? Explain that!"

"You guys already know," Gou said. "I have to defeat Iwatobi at the competition at the end of the summer. That's it."

"But why?" someone piped up. "It's cool and all that you want to beat your old school, but this almost feels like you want revenge or something."

"It's not really revenge…" she said slowly. "It's more like… proving to them that not all swimmers have to look a certain way. You guys saw what happened with Satoru. It was the same at my old school too." She remembered the way the principal laughed at her for asking to join the boy's team and squeezed her hands into fists. "I want to prove to them that I'm still good enough, exactly the way I am."

There was a brief moment of quiet murmuring before Nitori stood up quickly in the back of the group, surprising them. "You can do it, Gou-kun!" he said loudly. "You're definitely good enough for this!"

"Yeah!" someone else piped up. "You're definitely going to beat Satoru's time and get on that relay team!"

"You got this, Matsuoka!"

"Show them what little guys can do!"

"Yeah! Even if you are a little weird for a boy!"

The others shushed the last guy that spoke, but Gou didn't pay it any heed. She was startled to hear so many cheers of encouragement from her teammates that she didn't know how to react properly. When she came to Samezuka, she was just hoping she could swim and make her point and leave before anything else happened, but the comradery of her team caught her off guard and made her heart stir a little. She couldn't resist the happy grin that pulled up at her lips. Her attention turned again when Ryuu's hand came down on her shoulder and he gave her a wide grin.

"Satoru doesn't stand a chance against you," he said firmly. She smiled at him before he let his excited expression subdue a little. "And sorry for tackling you earlier."

"It's okay," she said back. "Just don't do it again or I'll hide your goggles in a dumpster."

He grimaced slightly. "Okay fine. I won't tackle you and you won't make me go dumpster diving. Deal?"

She laughed. "Deal. Now let's go to bed before we _all_ have to swim laps in the morning for being late."

The rest of the room grumbled a bit but easily agreed and settled into their futons. Gou slipped under her blanket, thankful to finally be laying down and listened to the sounds of the room slowly start to quiet down.

"Hey Gou-kun," Nitori whispered from beside her. She opened her eyes to look at him. He gave her a small smile. "Everyone really means what they say. You can do it. You can beat him."

Gou gave him a small smile back that reflected the warmth in her heart. "I know," she said softly. "I'm starting to think I can beat him too."  
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The next day came with an earthshattering bang as the third years came hurdling into their room banging and shouting until everyone leapt out of bed. Gou stood blearily, trying to dress as discreetly as possible in her corner as the third years funneled them all out as fast as they could. They all started on their early morning warm up run as the sun barely started peeking over the horizon, yawning and blinking slowly as they all slowly came back to life. Gou was still trying to shake the sleepiness from her eyes when someone bumped her shoulder as they ran by.

"Nice speech last night Matsuoka!" he said with a laugh.

She looked after him in confusion, unsure what he was talking about. A second person laughed as they ran by. "I didn't know somebody could be so passionate about which flavor of Pocky was the best!"

Other people laughed and Gou felt her face instantly go hot. It was easy to forget that she _still_ talked a lot in her sleep. Luckily it was still just about food.

"It's okay, Matsuoka," Ryuu said beside her. "I love Pocky too."

She groaned a little and picked up her pace. Their morning run ended pretty quickly and they were left to grab their swimsuits and head out toward the indoor training facility. Gou slipped off with the excuse that she left something behind and ducked into an empty room to quickly change into her swimsuit. As she was pulling the straps over her shoulders, she was _really_ hoping that she wouldn't be running to find a broom closet every time she needed to change. People would start to get a little suspicious about her affinity for changing in closets.

When she met back up with the team stretching on the poolside, she saw the old Iwatobi team heading in. A curl of nervousness swelled in her stomach seeing them and she absentmindedly pulled her bangs over the front of her face. Ryuu leaned in towards her to bump her shoulder.

"That's your old team?" he asked. She said nothing. "They don't look so tough."

"They're better than you think," she responded softly, but tried to take his attempt at encouragement to heart.

From across the room, she could see Nagisa subtly waving at her and Makoto's kind smile. She gave a small, shaky breath, but knew she had made the right choice by going to ask them for help the night before. She focused on pulling on her swimming cap as Seijuurou called the group to attention, giving them the run down for everything they had planned for the day. She half paid attention as he spoke about relays and time trials, finally ending with a rapid fire freestyle challenge.

They broke to line up in their respective lanes, starting out with warm up laps. She watched nervously as some of her teammates talked to the Iwatobi ones, her brother's old friends easily fielding whatever questions came their way. She bounced uncomfortably on the balls of her feet as she slowly inched forward toward the edge of the pool, trying to release some of her slowly building anxiety as the practice continued on. She was somewhere in the middle of reminding herself to breathe when she sensed somebody come up beside her. Looking to the side, she was surprised to see Haru standing there.

"Haruka-senpai," she said.

"I'm sorry for what happened," he said in his soft voice.

"It's not your fault," she said in response.

He nodded, taking her words. "I just…" He looked slightly to the side, toward the water. "If it's you, you could do it."

Gou glanced over at the pool, not really following him. "Do… what, Haruka-senpai?"

He looked back at her, his alluring blue eyes shimmering with secrets only he knew. "Fly."

Gou felt her breath leave her like a small wisp of smoke. She didn't know why, but that single word resonated in her like a strike of a gong, reverberating through her bones and settling deep in her soul.

_Fly_.

Haru stared at her a moment longer before finally nodding again, having seen what he wanted to see reflected in her eyes. He said a simple 'good luck' before heading off to join his own line again, leaving her to her own thoughts. She inched her way forward to the front of the line, putting everything else out of her mind except for the feeling she got when she thought about that single word. Before she knew it, she was standing on the starting block, waiting for the whistle. When it blew, she jumped from the block, feeling her soul lift as her body flew through the air.

_FLY!_

She slid through the water like a knife through butter, feeling absolutely no resistance as she kicked herself out of the water again, throwing her arms out to feel the air beneath her. Something felt different about this run. It felt exhilarating, like she was reaching for the sky every time she launched herself forward. Before she knew it, she had already made the turn and was inches from the finish. As her fingers touched the wall, she could feel her excitement already starting to bubble and as she pulled herself out, the excitement of the other people in the room solidified that feeling. Seijuurou was grinning wide from his spot near the starting block, his hand curled around a stopwatch.

"Gou-kun," he said, his voice high with excitement. "That was it! You just tied the school record!"

The second years started cheering, shouting a chorus of "I knew it!" and "Way to go Matsuoka!" Seijuurou's words took a minute for her to comprehend completely, even as her teammates started patting her on the back and knocking her around a bit in their excitement. The elation finally kicked in and her heart doubled in speed as a wide grin pulled across her face. She was about to cheer along with the other second years when the mood of the room changed, the cheering quickly dying down as the group parted to let Shinichi Satoru through.

Gou stood a little taller when she saw him, the energy of her victory still pumping through her veins. He came to stand before her, just a few inches too close, and folded his arms as he sized her up with his dark eyes.

"Well," he said at length. "It clear that we've danced around this issue long enough. It's time we finish this once and for all." There was a flurry of murmurs throughout the crowd around them, but Gou didn't flinch at his announcement. She had been expecting this, and this time, she wasn't afraid.

"I'll give you one more week to prepare yourself," he said arrogantly, garnering a few laughs from some of the seniors. "As soon as that week's up, we'll race. And whomever wins will take all the spoils and the glory. The record. The title. The spot on the relay team." He leaned close, trying to get a rise out of her. "Are you ready to see who _really_ deserves to hold the record for the fastest fly, scrawny boy?"

Gou knew that she should have felt a least a little intimidated by his threat. Shinichi Satoru was seriously a force to be reckoned with, after all. But Gou Matsuoka was a fighter and she had already come this far in this game of powers and she wasn't about to back down just yet.

"Yeah, I am," she said with a confident grin. "And I already know it's not going to be you."


End file.
